Free Republic

As world leaders in Paris scramble to reach a climate agreement aimed to mitigate the consequences of untamed greenhouse gas emissions, they have been dealt a rare dose of good news. Scientists writing in the journal Nature Climate Change estimate that for the first time in the last 15 years, global carbon dioxide emissions have flatlined, and possibly even declined. "It is difficult to overstate the significance of this development," said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. "What it shows is that we are indeed now turning the corner in transition from a...

The best way to encourage the market development of clean energy technology is by charging a price for carbon emissions. Unfortunately for anti-tax libertarians like myself, economists know that the only way to charge a price for carbon emissions is by implementing a carbon tax. But unlike most taxes, which are implemented solely to make the government money and/or to punish an otherwise harmless activity, a carbon tax would punish an actually harmful activity and simultaneously create a market incentive for a technological solution to develop in response. A carbon tax, properly applied, would charge all major carbon emitters a...