Global carbon taxation: Intuition from a back-of-the-envelope calculation
Global carbon taxation: Intuition from a back-of-the-envelope calculation / Armon Rezai & Rick van der Ploeg, Vox, 15/01/2015
http://www.voxeu.org/article/global-carbon-taxation
The failure of markets to price carbon emissions appropriately leads to excessive fuel use and induces global warming. This column suggests a new, back-of-the-envelope rule for calculating the global carbon price. The authors find that fighting global warming requires a price of around $15 per ton of emitted CO2, or $0.13 per gallon of gasoline. The rule also highlights the importance of economic indicators, such as GDP, for climate policy…