Richard Branson Calls For Global Carbon Taxes

Richard Branson, who was at the Cancún Climate Summit to launch a web-based initiative to reduce shipping emissions by as much as 25% over the next 20 years, said taxes could be useful. “Carbon taxes are fine if they are global. Everyone must be in the same boat. We would welcome it if they were done equitably, across the board and as long as it’s not just airlines. Everyone must share the burden.”

If governments can’t come to an agreement on how to tackle climate change, global industry should work together to remove 17bn tons of projected CO2e emissions by 2020 and stabilize the climate, Branson said.

He also said that the world’s entrepreneurs could cut emissions better than states by saying that governments had to set the framework for business to go green.

“The ideas are out there. But if the worst came to the worst and governments did not get their act together, industry should be able to solve the problems themselves. If governments set a framework in which clean energy was not taxed and dirty energy was, then there is a chance. That’s what government has to do,” he said.

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