In theory, governments use carbon taxes to shift the costs of climate degradation from the public to those responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. However, contaminators can avoid paying carbon tax. Many economists say carbon pricing is critical to scaling up climate action. So these ought to be applied effectively.

There are serious flaws in how carbon taxes are imposed, and how the revenue is disbursed.

Journalist Yannic Rack wrote that large industrial emitters pay only a tiny fraction of Canada’s ambitious carbon taxes.

That’s because Ottawa and most provincial governments grant heavy exemptions to a number of sectors, including oil and gas, chemicals, cement, steel and mining… However, with growing urgency to cut emissions, experts say the degree to which Canada – the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter – shields companies is threatening its climate targets.

…Suncor, the oil and gas sector’s largest emitter, estimates that it paid $59 million in compliance costs in 2020, before using offsets – or an extra 16 cents on every barrel of oil it produces.

…“The balance sheet impact is really, really low,” says Dave Sawyer, principal economist at the CICC. “It basically doesn’t signal that you need to change your production model very much.”

Canada’s biggest emitters are paying the lowest carbon tax rate

IEA reported that 71 percent of annual carbon emissions from industrial activities in 2022 resulted from the production of iron, steel, cement, and chemicals. The products also create a toxic soup of pollutants that harm nearby communities.

Technological advances may enable material improvements, but may not be implemented. Large corporations are driven by motives that value short-term profitability more than long-term sustainability. Since the world is ruled by despots and politicians who value wealth more than human welfare, we are likely doomed. The question is when will disaster overwhelm humanity.

• Twelve billionaires’ climate emissions outpollute 2.1 million homes. Who are they?  The tycoons include the Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the tech billionaires Bill Gates, Larry Page, and Michael Dell, the inventor and social media company owner Elon Musk and the Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim.