Professor John FitzGerald:

When I spoke about the evidence that showed that carbon taxes worked, I said it was exceptionally difficult to find any professional economist who published in an academic journal who suggested anything other than that carbon taxes worked. There are no carbon tax deniers among those who have done economic work. Just as there is evidence that climate change is a huge problem, there is evidence that carbon taxes work. It is true that emissions have continued to increase, even though we have a carbon tax of €20 a tonne. Emissions have increased because the economy has grown. The evidence shows that emissions would have been higher if we had not had a carbon tax of €20 a tonne. The example of British Columbia mentioned by the Deputy takes no account of the other factors that are driving emissions. The Deputy acknowledged that the state of the economic cycle in British Columbia had had an effect. In my previous role as an academic economist, my job was to look at the literature. I note that Dr. de Bruin is nodding in agreement. There is near unanimity that carbon taxes work.