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Carbon tax and dividend could open the era of clean energy independence


A recent article on The Guardian highlights how a tax upstream on energy sources with a high rate of pollution and its redistribution downstream could favour the so-called Main Street economy (the economy of households and small and medium-sized enterprises).  Acting on the climate, says The Guardian, is much more important than the health of our energy economy in general. Climate change is the main threat to developed economies, an accelerator of armed conflict and a major cause of mass migration. Its effects intensify and prolong storms, droughts, fires and floods, with the result that more was spent on disaster management in the United States in 2017 than in the previous three decades, from 1980 to 2010. The International Monetary Fund has warned nations that depend heavily on fossil fuels. Subsidizing with public money the economies that are very dependent on this type of energy source is putting their future solvency at risk. At the same time, the rapid expansion of green bonds is making it clear that large investors and banks are interested in the development of the so-called Clean Economy. Smart and sustainable funding should be the standard for public and private sector actors at all levels within 10 or 20 years, the UK newspaper explains. Former Republican Treasury Secretaries James Baker and George Shultz have called for a carbon dividend strategy. And this could bring improvements and transparency to the market. Even with record production of oil and gas, the United States is still heavily dependent on foreign regimes that manipulate supply and undermine the efficiency of economic systems.