global home story

Jiří Svoboda is a scientist working at the Institute of Materials Physics at theAcademy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. His concept of a unified global carbon tax (fee) and its 100% dividend has ambitions to gradually and effectively reduce CO2 emissions in all countries around the world. Like the world’s leading economists, he sees the strength in motivating people and companies by making their ecological behavior pay off.

Since there are many emitters in the world and only dozens of fossil fuel miners, he proposes, in agreement with the International Monetary Fund, to charge the “offenders at the source” with a uniform fee. The global carbon tax imposed on coal, oil, and natural gas based on their carbon content would be collected directly from the miners. The miners would then add the carbon fee to the price of the fuel and thus the price of the subsequently generated CO2 emissions would be automatically and accurately reflected in the price of all products and services. Thanks to this trick, there would be no need to calculate the carbon footprint of products and services in a complicated way, because their price will reflect it thanks to the carbon fee.

Since CO2 emissions are global and it doesn’t matter where or by whom they are emitted, Jiří proposes that the fee be globally uniform and gradually increased yearly.

Predictably, everything that harms the global climate will become more expensive. Gradually all anti-emission measures will be enforced from the most effective to the most demanding until the price of the carbon fee will become high enough.

International trade will not need to introduce administratively demanding carbon tariffs (so-called CBAM), which have been extensively discussed at climate summits in recent years.

And what will be done with the collected carbon tax? Jiří, as well as Dr. James Hansen, who started promoting his Carbon Fee and Dividend concept at the same time in the US, considers it the most socially just to return the collected carbon fee to the people as a 100% dividend. But the difference is that Jiří proposes to collect and distribute the carbon fee on a global scale while Hansen is counting on money flows within the US.

All people (in developing and developed countries) receiving the same carbon dividend would have an important effect. People with a below-average carbon footprint (which is the majority of the world) would “earn money” from this system, on the other hand, people with a high carbon footprint would be motivated to reduce it (their lifestyle would no longer be financially viable). But everyone would be financially motivated to reduce their carbon footprint and thereby prevent global climate disruption. People in developing countries (often the most affected by climate change) would get money for their sustainable development (which is, among other things, the request of the leaders of the African states at COP28) and could completely skip the fossil era.

Jiří published his concept back in 2007 and has been consulting and improving it ever since. Although most experts feel positive about the idea, they see the biggest obstacle in its acceptance by all countries.

You can find out more about the concept in the book, in the Article for Climete Journal and at the website: globalcarbontax.eu/