Shifting Choices to Low Carbon
Carbon pricing is like speeding tickets, discourages things that aren't good for us.
Carbon pricing is a much-misunderstood and highly politicized climate policy. Canada is currently going through another round of political/social debate despite having a carbon price since 2019. Why now? It’s an election year.
Need-to-Know: It’s wrong to call carbon pricing a tax.
Would you call a speeding ticket a tax? It’s a penalty for doing something society decides it doesn’t want.
Penalizing bad or dangerous behavior in any society is how we prevent or reduce bad or dangerous behavior by individuals and companies. Safety and health regulations are examples.
Carbon pricing simply penalizes behavior we need to discourage, namely, pumping more climate-heating carbon into the atmosphere.
Polluter pays is a widely accepted concept. (It’s hardly a radical idea to think companies or individuals should pay for the costs of their pollution causes.)
Need-to-Know: 52 countries have some form of carbon pricing.
Here’s an example of how pricing carbon pollution can shift our choices:
Raise the price of beer by $5.
Return $5 to buyers.
Sales of wine go up, beer goes down.
Under Canada’s carbon pricing setup, the vast majority of Canadians get more money than they pay via quarterly rebates. Plus, the less carbon you emit the more money you make. Best of all Canada’s sky-high emissions fall.
Let’s not forget: “It’s our responsibility to leave behind a world that’s safe and livable for future generations.”
Need-to-Know: Carbon pricing is NOT going to solve the climate crisis.
Pricing carbon done well is a very important tool. However, it is just one of many tools we have to use such as regulations and support for improving green transportation, greening homes and buildings with insulation and heat pumps, and so on.
One of the least talked about tools is aligning our thinking, expectations, and decisions with the goal of 50% emission reduction by 2030. And then we do what we can to achieve that goal.
Need-to-Know: Small changes can make a big difference in our lives.
This isn’t easy given our busy day-to-day lives. And it shouldn’t be stressful or make anyone feel guilty. We simply do what feels right for each of us on our journey to a low-carbon living.
Small changes on that journey do make a difference in our lives. I’ve learned that walking or biking to the store isn’t a chore but one of life’s little pleasures even in bad weather. After making those small changes, we wonder why we didn’t act sooner.
For example, a slightly bigger change is switching to a green bank, as I wrote about last month Banking on the Future:
Bank Green is a volunteer group that evaluates banks in different countries. It can tell you how your bank is doing based on its investment ratio of clean energy vs. fossil fuel financing.
Sadly, my soon-to-be-former bank, TD Bank, is rated #1 in the world for tar sands financing. TD is rated WORST. More about TD Bank here.
Turns out that Alterna Bank, the small and much greener community bank we’re now with provides exceptional customer service. Should have switched years ago.
Need-to-Know: It is not radical to make changes that improve our lives.
Until next time, be well.
Stephen