A University of Alberta law professor is calling for a levy on carbon emissions that would compensate vulnerable populations for harms caused by climate change.
In a recent study published in Climate Law as a tribute to environmental law scholar Meinhard Doelle, Adebayo Majekolagbe and his co-authors, Dave Wright and Sara L. Seck, make the case for a monetary value — expressed in dollars per metric tonne of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere — that reflects damages to human health, community, property and fragile ecosystems in the wake of extreme weather events.
The levy could contribute to a global fund to support those adversely affected, says Majekolagbe.
"When it is assessed that a project will emit X tonnes of greenhouse gases, the social cost of emissions should be calculated," says Majekolagbe, "and a percentage of that cost should be remitted into a loss and damage fund to help those most vulnerable to and impacted by climate change in Canada and globally."
Calculating socio-ecological harm in monetary terms may be a crude measure, but for now it's the best one we have, he says.
"You want to make the impacts of climate change as vivid as possible, and people understand the language of money."
Damages might include lost agricultural productivity or property lost to flooding, but also non-market damages to human health, living conditions and natural ecosystems. Canada does not currently consider loss and damage due to climate change in impact assessments, says Majekolagbe.
