Elon Musk advocates for CO2 tax to tackle climate change crisis

Says if properly levied, it would provide much leverage in solving problems of fast-rising CO2 levels

New Delhi: Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has advocated for a carbon dioxide tax to confront the ongoing climate change crisis.

Musk said in a post on X on Wednesday that a CO2 tax, if properly levied, would provide much leverage in solving the problems of the fast-rising CO2 levels.

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He added, “If we do need something to tax, it should be something potentially harmful, instead of something potentially beneficial, as is done for vegetables and fruits, instead of tobacco and liquor.”

A CO2 tax, properly applied, would change the tragedy of the commons that is the steadily rising CO2 ppm level. If we’re going to tax anything, then we should prioritize taxing the potentially bad over the potentially good, as we do with alcohol & cigarettes over vegetables &… pic.twitter.com/r5uelirNrC

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2024

The tech billionaire disagreed with those who believe that this crisis will be catastrophic in the next five to ten years but agreed that the long-term risk is very real, even if one views life simply at a given CO2 level.

He mentioned in a graphics attached with his X post that the ideal outdoor air is 400 ppm but the current levels are much higher than this, meaning they are at least 800 ppm as compared to the ideal of 400, and that things would go out of hand if the level transcended 1,000 and above.