Climate Warrior Jane Goodall isn't Sold on Carbon Taxes and Electric Vehicles
Goodall, who just turned 90, said a carbon tax can seem punitive to consumers — making a measure to fight climate change seem like a costly chore.
World-renowned primatologist and climate activist Jane Goodall says carbon pricing schemes like the one Canada has deployed aren't a silver bullet to solve the pressing threat of climate change.
Speaking to CBC News during the Ottawa stop of her cross-country tour of Canada this week, Goodall said the jury's out on whether levying a consumer price on emissions will meaningfully improve the climate picture over the long term.
Goodall, who just turned 90, said a carbon tax can seem punitive to consumers — making a measure to fight climate change seem like a costly chore.
She said she also worries that the fight against climate change has been "politicized ... causing people just not to listen" — and that's a problem because the urgency of the crisis demands an all-hands-on-deck response.
Industrial carbon taxes also rarely impose a huge financial burden on major energy companies, which can pay a levy and go on drilling and mining resources that are damaging to the environment, she said.
"The problem with a climate tax is that, yes, it can do some good — it gives money to control climate change and so on — but it doesn't get to the root cause, which is fossil fuel emissions, emissions of methane from industrial farming," she said. "So, in that sense, it's not something I endorse."
Anti-carbon tax protesters wave signs and chant slogans as they block a westbound lane of the Trans Canada highway near Cochrane, Alta. on Monday, April 1, 2024. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)
Goodall said carbon taxes are "not a bad thing at all" but "a big oil and gas company, they pay a tax and then they're making so much money they go on emitting and mining and so on. So it's not the solution."
She said a more effective measure would be to aggressively curtail fossil fuel extraction and their use in Canada and around the world.
"We need to curb it everywhere. I have great faith in young people — they're beginning to understand and they can affect their parents who may be in the oil business," Goodall said.
"Some of the more responsible oil and gas companies are investing more and more in renewable energy and that's the way to go — put more money into renewable energy so that we no longer need fossil fuels."
Canada has a dual carbon pricing system. The first part is a consumer-focused tax that makes the price of oil, natural gas and propane more expensive to encourage people to choose cleaner, greener alternatives.
The tax money is collected by Ottawa and then rebated to consumers through quarterly payments based on family size and location.
The idea is that the more a household moves away from fossil fuel consumption, the more it stands to gain from the federal government's rebate.
There's also a second industrial component, or "output-based pricing system," that targets large emitters with a separate price levied on their carbon pollution.
That program has faced criticism from some environmental groups who say the price is applied unevenly and allows some companies to emit large quantities of carbon for free.
But the industrial price is also said to be the more effective of the two taxes.
An independent analysis by the Canadian Climate Institute, released late last month, shows industrial carbon pricing has three times the impact on greenhouse gas emissions as the consumer tax.
The report found that carbon pricing — both the consumer and industrial versions — is projected to reduce emissions by as much as 50 per cent by 2030.
The Liberal government has made the carbon tax the centrepiece of its climate change plan.
The Conservatives under leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, have been campaigning to scrap the tax and ramp up natural gas production to offset more emissions-intensive fuels like coal.
While she's somewhat sceptical of carbon taxes and emissions pricing schemes, Goodall said the world needs to collectively invest more in technology to help with the climate change fight.
"We have these amazing intellects. We're not using them enough and we're not thinking holistically enough," she said.
But she added she's worried about the current crop of electric vehicles, which largely rely on lithium batteries.
She welcomes EVs as a concept but said she fears that the global scramble to mine lithium is ruining parts of the natural environment.
"Huge areas are now being destroyed by mining for lithium," she said. "It scars the natural world."
Anti-carbon tax protesters wave signs and chant slogans as they block a westbound lane of the Trans Canada highway near Cochrane, Alta. on Monday, April 1, 2024. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)
Goodall said carbon taxes are "not a bad thing at all" but "a big oil and gas company, they pay a tax and then they're making so much money they go on emitting and mining and so on. So it's not the solution."
She said a more effective measure would be to aggressively curtail fossil fuel extraction and their use in Canada and around the world.
"We need to curb it everywhere. I have great faith in young people — they're beginning to understand and they can affect their parents who may be in the oil business," Goodall said.
"Some of the more responsible oil and gas companies are investing more and more in renewable energy and that's the way to go — put more money into renewable energy so that we no longer need fossil fuels."
Canada has a dual carbon pricing system. The first part is a consumer-focused tax that makes the price of oil, natural gas and propane more expensive to encourage people to choose cleaner, greener alternatives.
The tax money is collected by Ottawa and then rebated to consumers through quarterly payments based on family size and location.
The idea is that the more a household moves away from fossil fuel consumption, the more it stands to gain from the federal government's rebate.
There's also a second industrial component, or "output-based pricing system," that targets large emitters with a separate price levied on their carbon pollution.
That program has faced criticism from some environmental groups who say the price is applied unevenly and allows some companies to emit large quantities of carbon for free.
But the industrial price is also said to be the more effective of the two taxes.
An independent analysis by the Canadian Climate Institute, released late last month, shows industrial carbon pricing has three times the impact on greenhouse gas emissions as the consumer tax.
The report found that carbon pricing — both the consumer and industrial versions — is projected to reduce emissions by as much as 50 per cent by 2030.
The Liberal government has made the carbon tax the centrepiece of its climate change plan.
The Conservatives under leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, have been campaigning to scrap the tax and ramp up natural gas production to offset more emissions-intensive fuels like coal.
While she's somewhat sceptical of carbon taxes and emissions pricing schemes, Goodall said the world needs to collectively invest more in technology to help with the climate change fight.
"We have these amazing intellects. We're not using them enough and we're not thinking holistically enough," she said.
But she added she's worried about the current crop of electric vehicles, which largely rely on lithium batteries.
She welcomes EVs as a concept but said she fears that the global scramble to mine lithium is ruining parts of the natural environment.
"Huge areas are now being destroyed by mining for lithium," she said. "It scars the natural world."
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