Frank has a plan to address climate change at no cost

Frank de Jong, Leader of the Ontario Green Party
News Release

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Prohibitively high cost remain the justification for limited government action on climate change, that it would require added job-killing taxation and multi-hundred billion dollar transfers to poor countries. The climate change defenders say this would be money well spent, while the climate change skeptics say it would be a waste of money. But this entire premise is incorrect and should be re-examined.


Climate

change can and should be addressed at zero cost to taxpayers, by using the tax structure as a policy tool, through tax shifting, i.e. untaxing jobs and business and up-taxing resource use, land values and the privilege of polluting. Green tax shifts are revenue-neutral and cost governments nothing. In fact they benefit the economy by rewarding resource-efficient, clean production which is generally wealth-producing, value-added and job-intensive.

Moving the source of government revenue off personal incomes and business profits and onto levies and fees on the use and abuse of the global commons should become policy whether climate change is happening or not. The benefits of green tax shifting include more jobs, a more prosperous economy, less sprawl, more walkable neighbourhoods, increased economic viability of local food and clean energy, resource conservation, nature preservation, less poverty, and fewer diseases like asthma, cancer and diabetes. Higher resource costs for business will be offset by reduced labour costs.


This policy program builds bridges between climate change skeptics and defenders, between business and eco-activists by offering a win-win, fiscally-responsible, politically-attractive market mechanism to address climate without additional taxes, unfair subsidies or punitive compliance legislation. This program makes sense for both rich and poor countries regardless of the real or perceived climate change treat and would avoid the need for future international climate change agreements, the intrinsic rewards sufficient to incent implementation.

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