Prof John Ekins told a packed house today that wetern economies have to improve the productivity of carbon by a factor of 10 by mid century. Every knowledgeable person knows that depends on pricing carbon. Prof Ekins cites numerous studies that green tax shifts can also produce the necessay carbon reductions with higher employment and less pollution, at no detectable cost to competitiveness. The six European countries who have adopted such taxes have had more economic growth than other members of the EU.
Prof Ekins claims to have proof that the public can be brought to support green fiscal reform. He also notes that a carbon tax works much better than cap and trade (bigger benefits, less cost).
I was glad to see that even the federal government had an observer at the speech. Prof Ekin also gave the same message to the Premier’s office, who apparently were most attentive.
For details, see Green Fiscal Commission: http://www.greenfiscalcommission.org.uk/.