Carbon Pricing

This Global News explainer looks at carbon pricing, one of the most debated tools for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It sets out the basic idea: put a price on carbon pollution so that polluters pay for the damage instead of passing it on to everyone else for free.

What the video covers

• Why some governments treat a carbon "tax" as a way to make polluters pay
• The main objection: that the money is just revenue and isn't spent on climate action
• What the research says about whether carbon prices actually reduce emissions

The evidence

Carbon pricing is one of the most studied climate policies. British Columbia introduced a revenue-neutral carbon tax in 2008, and studies of it found emissions fell with little measurable harm to the province's economy. Carbon pricing now covers roughly a quarter of global emissions. The political debate is real (Canada dropped its consumer carbon price in 2025 but kept pricing for large industrial emitters), but economists broadly agree that putting a price on pollution is one of the cheapest ways to cut it.

Related reading: Economics of Renewable Energy, Who Drives Climate Change? and Climate Change.