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Luis Quito
Professor Probst Martin
ENGLI 1102
2 December, 2016
Climate Reform
If you read a newspaper or listen to the radio or scan through a blog you most certainly
will encounter stories about climate change. It is the reality we live in today and it may be the
single most vital problem we face as it affects everyone regardless of the walk of life or where
they call home, it is such a daunting reality. All roads have led to this, it can be viewed in history
as the urgency of maintaining our environment wasn't always there, it was more important to live
life in comfort regardless of the damage caused in the process. The everydayness of life allowed
us to turn a blind eye to all the deliberate destruction of the environment, and oil dumping, and
the carbon emitting factories. As climate change continues its disruptive course it is our duty to
intervene in its path. But with current efforts and a continuation of a stagnant willingness for
change the most pressing problem will continue. That is why difficult decisions must be made
and current efforts must increase. As inhabitants of this planet and the primary reason for this
disaster, we must not become prisoners of the present. That is why the use of fossil fuels, the
leading cause of carbon emissions and climate change, must change. In recent years voices
calling for change have been disregarded, but to create real change, change must occur where no
one will ignore, their wallet. Goods and service created from burning fossil fuels have always
had a price but now a new price must be implemented to pay for the damage those fossil fuels

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will bring, such as a carbon tax. A carbon tax that will bring much-needed relief for the
environment and have a positive economic impact.
The consumption of fossil fuels have increased rapidly since the turn of the century and
its dependability for quotidian life is parallel. This enhances the damage caused by climate
change and decreases living conditions in various places around the world. A combined
climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim 100 million lives between now and the end of the next
decade. (DARA) This has alarmed many nations around the world and in the process the
international community came to a consensus to fight global climate change and keep the rise in
temperature in check. In the Paris Agreement, the United States and one hundred ninety-three
countries signed the treaty to maintain the surging rise of the global temperature below two
degrees celsius. In order to uphold its commitment the United States and the presidents
administration have implemented more than a dozen regulations on the manufacturing industry,
mining companies, and the oil industry of the United States. But the suite of regulations the
nation has rolled out might not be enough to meet the cuts it has promised. Its commitment to
produce 26 to 28 percent less greenhouse gas by 2025 might miss its target. (Greenblatt) If the
biggest consumer of fossil fuels and the largest economy in the world cannot maintain its end of
the agreement, all one hundred ninety-three countries who voluntarily made their commitment to
deal with emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance will not be obliged to uphold the treaty.
Thus creating a failed system that, in turn, will return to its downward path. In order to ensure a
positive trajectory the United States must meet its target lowering its fuel consumption and the
only sure form is a tax on carbon. A carbon tax would lower fossil fuel use, lowering fossil fuel

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imports to the United States by half by 2020. (Rausch) Making the United States more energy
independent and self-sustained.
Much of the retaliation for a new taxation of fossil fuels comes from the current fossil
fuel giants as they hold a large share of the country's gross domestic product. More than a quarter
of a trillion dollars of revenue is created from fossil fuels. Raising the question of the immediate
damage that will be created from a diminished and heavily taxed industry. A tax on carbon
would increase fossil-fuel prices, resulting in an increase in prices of goods and services, which
would diminish the purchasing power of peoples earnings. The coal and petroleum industry will
diminish causing many lost jobs and impacting the economy of the U.S. and many others abroad.
This may not be easy to digest but drastic times call for drastic measures. In doing so the desire
for a new cheaper form of production would create a new market. An energy independent nation
would produce its own future source of energy and transfer its market value from
non-renewables to renewables in an effort to be alleviated from the tax and would provide
competition and stability to the economy as it allows the United States to maintain its revenue in
house. It would create a soaring market for renewable energy manufacturing to produce which
will make the United States the world leader in renewables and exporting renewables. (Shakouri)
As the demand for renewable energy increases there has been a surge to invest and create
innovation for the future of renewables. There has been an immense decrease in the cost of wind,
solar, bioenergy, and geothermal energy from innovative technology raising the share of
renewable energy in global power generation in recent years to twenty-eight percent. (Arent)
Creating manufacturing and construction jobs for these new sources of energy like solar parks

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and wind farms. This can also create a new local power independence. It could also shift the
reliability of large corporate manufacturers of nuclear power or coal power to new local power
grids where you receive electricity from your own solar panel or renewables. While the price of
electricity from coal powered plants will increase the desire for a cheaper product will allow the
oil and coal giants to shift manufacturing to produce cheaper tax-free green energy.
This would have the single largest positive impact on the environment. Cognate to the
increased use of fossil fuels there has also been a large and steady growth in the number of
natural disasters occurring per year. As all the natural disasters that occur around the world are
well documented and broadcast it is a gruesome sight to see. No one is safe from the grasp of
nature, as seen from the many hurricanes that destroy cities, droughts that destroy crops,
tornadoes, and wildfires that destroy homes. It comes at a cost of more than eight hundred fifty
billion dollars in damages and repairs are generated from natural disasters around the world
caused by global warming. (Nordhaus) It is in the best interest of the world economy to see that
number decrease. To do so the current path taken must change. In recent years, countries around
the world have taken an initiative to implement a form of carbon tax or tax on emissions to
decrease the amount of natural disasters that occur; Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand,
Sweden, and Chile have implemented a carbon tax reform in their government. This has
provided the United States with a unique advantage to impose tax and tariffs using the strengths
and weaknesses of current governments with these taxes. To create a successful carbon tax a
reduction in income and payroll taxes must also be enacted. (Avi-Yonah) It would create a more
viable legislation that can be amended and can declaim allegations of a tax increase, instead, this
carbon tax can be viewed as a tax shift. Research shows that in the United States a tax of twenty

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dollars per ton of fuel would raise one hundred fifty billion dollars of revenue a year. Decreasing
emissions by fourteen percent in ten years. (Metcalf) This would create an opportunity to add
revenue to the federal budget allowing the government to continue to fund relief efforts to states
that are impacted by future natural disasters that occur in the United States. It will allow the
federal government to give subsidies to oil and coal companies who invest in the future of green
energy.
Global climate change presents a unique challenge to all governments. It is not something
only one nation can resolve and its like nothing the world has ever seen before. Its not a war or
plague but it is an issue that harms every nation. A global crisis that the United States must
approach wholeheartedly in an effort to pull everyone along because there is no other planet to
run to, this is the place we must preserve, our home. There have been many efforts in helping
reverse the effects of climate change: educating future generations of this issue, improving waste
management and recycling, improving eco-friendly technology and innovation. But those efforts
fall short in addressing the current severity of global climate change. A new approach must occur
one that can be effective in all aspects of life, a carbon tax. A unanimous global structure formed
to fight climate change cannot be challenged, like the Montreal Protocol an international effort
that reversed the damage of a depleted ozone, when every nation comes to a consensus there is
no vision out of sight. A carbon tax that would create sustainability, economic growth, and
innovation to the United States. And most importantly reverse climate change.

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Works Cited
Arent, Douglas J., Alison Wise, and Rachel Gelman. "The Status and Prospects of Renewable
Energy for Combating Global Warming." Energy Economics 33.4 (2011): 584-593.
Avi-Yonah, Reuven S., and David M. Uhlmann. "Combating Global Climate Change: Why a
Carbon Tax Is a Better Response to Global Warming than Cap and Trade." Stanford
Environmental Law Journal 28.3 (2009).
DARA. Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet. Madrid:
DARA and the Climate Vulnerable Forum, 2012. Print.
Greenblatt, Jeffery B., and Max Wei. "Assessment of the Climate Commitments and Additional
Mitigation Policies of the United States." Nature Climate Change 6.12 (2016):
1090-093. Web.
Metcalf, Gilbert E., and David Weisbach. "The Design of a Carbon Tax." Harvard
Environmental. Law Review. 33.1 (2009)
Nordhaus, William D. The Climate Casino : Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming
World. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013. Print
Rausch, Sebastian, and John M. Reilly. Carbon Tax Revenue and the Budget Deficit: A
Win-win-win Solution? MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global
Change, 2012.
Shakouri, Bahram, and Soheila Khoshnevis Yazdi. "The economic impacts of a carbon tax."
Advances in Environmental Biology, 2014.