Why Carbon Pricing Is the Missing Link in U.S. Climate Policy, According to a New Study — Incentives can drive rapid adoption of cleaner technologies early on, but without pricing for carbon and methane emissions, long-term decarbonization will stall
Why Carbon Pricing Is the Missing Link in U.S. Climate Policy, According to a New Study
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The missing link in the climate crisis is the lack of will to do anything at all
A price on carbon is [widely regarded](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0474-0.epdf?author_access_token=tst1A-oZnQ8zUO18wGGPQdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0Nfy3PIgvrwnNXQzIbXH8z1Wkqhm6g5NiMnxMk__ebsKxGQNB0hMf1Vpo-ZiNplSt5LeLyks-Q3sdrpBdfxxHvAfQylqqwqHxgEml7GEGOxaQ%3D%3D) as the single most impactful climate mitigation policy, and for [good reason](https://www.reddit.com/r/CitizensClimateLobby/comments/rqg2y0/i_used_mits_climate_policy_simulator_to_order_its/). It’s also [a surprisingly good time to put one in place](https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/238108/1/HEIDWP-202117.pdf). Americans [increasingly understand](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/26/us-voters-link-climate-crisis-affordability) unchecked climate change is hurting our wallets, and [a strong majority supports a carbon tax](https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/).
A [growing proportion of global emissions are covered by a carbon price](https://www.reddit.com/r/carbontax/comments/1punqox/28_of_global_emissions_are_covered_by_a_direct/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), and we can now say with [high confidence](https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers.pdf) that [carbon taxes work](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10640-020-00436-x) and [are in each nation’s own best interest](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2015/wp15105.pdf).
[Getting environmentalists to vote](https://www.environmentalvoter.org/get-involved) and [directly lobbying lawmakers](https://citizensclimatelobby.org/join-citizens-climate-lobby/) for [specific policy changes](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClimateOffensive/comments/1q1ytuh/a_carbon_tax_is_widely_regarded_as_the_single/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) are two of [the best ways for an individual to address climate change](https://drawdown.org/shift).
Carbon pricing doesn’t do jack diddly as far as I can tell here in WA. They slapped on a Cap&Trade program for several major CO2 emitters, but it hasn’t had the effect of changing anything in use of those fuels, and the money raised and spent on “carbon reduction” programs hasn’t shown significant reductions for the cost. And just the other day the Dept of Commerce had to adjust their own report because they misreported the amount of reduction that a watchdog was able to catch in less than 30 min, but at no time did the reporting programs or the dept staff even question the validity of the numbers.
The only way to really attack carbon emissions is to give consumers a viable market efficient and cost effective alternative, which has yet to be developed or made available without major subsidy. For all that climate change is a real threat low income individuals don’t care about what will happen in the future when they are simply trying to pay for their needs today, many of which still use the direct product of or the byproducts of petroleum refinement.