Episode 472: The One-Page Plan To Fix Global Warming ... Revisited : Planet Money Tax carbon emissions. That's basically the whole plan. What's the hold up?

Episode 472: The One-Page Plan To Fix Global Warming ... Revisited

Camille Seaman/Barcroft Media/Landov
Iceberg
Camille Seaman/Barcroft Media/Landov

Climate change seems like this complicated, intractable problem. But maybe it doesn't have to be.

In 2013, we talked to a couple economists about a very simple idea that could solve the climate change problem: Tax carbon emissions. A carbon tax could be paired with cuts in the income tax. It would drive down emissions without picking winners or losers, and without creating complicated regulations. It all seemed so elegant. So doable. At the time they made a bold prediction.

We promised to revisit their prediction in the summer of 2018, as many of you wonderful, fastidious, dedicated listeners have reminded us. We hear you.

Today on the show, exactly five years after we aired the original episode, we check in with one of those economists to find out how carbon taxes have fared around the world.

Music: "Daydreaming" and Noah and the Whale's "5 Years Time."

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