Leading global economist and Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz has predicted the world will very soon see the merits of carbon pricing and says those who act first will have a competitive advantage.
Professor Stiglitz , who is currently visiting Australia, made the comments as Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government is on the verge of repealing the country’s carbon price laws, introduced two years ago by the then Labor government.
He said it was better to tax bad things than good things, and queried whether it was better to tax carbon than labour and savings if governments wanted to raise revenue.
“It seems to be a no-brainer, taxing carbon makes more sense,” the Columbia University professor told the Australian National University’s Crawford Leadership Forum in the national capital, Canberra.
AAP Newsagency reports that while Australia’s government believed the carbon price put Australia at a disadvantage, Professor Stiglitz argued the critical issue was not what other countries were doing now.
Both the east and west coasts of the United States were taking serious action on carbon, Professor Stiglitz said.
“We know in some naive sense it puts us at a little bit of a disadvantage, but we believe that over the long run it puts us at a competitive advantage.”
While the world did not reach a global agreement on climate change in 2010, there might be a chance in 2020 or 2030, Professor Stiglitz said.
“I believe that over the long run we will have to have a carbon tax, the world will come around to this.”
“If you’re taxing carbon, you’re getting revenue that you would otherwise have to get from other sources,” he added.
