In Russ Vernon-Jones’ column “Solving humanity’s shared climate crisis” [Gazette, March 14], he advocates funding green projects for the Global South by taxing the ultra-wealthy. Why? Because “that’s where the money is.” In response, guest columnist Daniel Lyons argues that wealth taxes don’t work, largely “because of implementation difficulties” [“World’s energy systems will not change in the short-term,” Gazette, March 29]. The ultra-rich evade these taxes.

But there’s another solution: taxing consumption — specifically, consumption that results in carbon pollution and global warming. I really don’t care what the ultra-rich are up to, except when they wreck the planet because of their consumption habits. Let’s discourage these habits with a carbon tax. And let’s distribute all the proceeds of this tax equally to U.S. households. Low-income households would get the tax receipts from someone who had to have a yacht or a private plane. By instituting this tax at the source —  taxing the polluters themselves, the coal, oil, and gas companies — the rich couldn’t hide income or hire lawyers to escape paying.

Finally, let’s motivate other countries to advance green technology, while ensuring that U.S. firms and workers aren’t put at a competitive disadvantage, by also taxing carbon-intensive goods at the border. Who would’ve thought we could feed eight billion humans, or that we’d have little computers in our pockets? Green energy technology seems simple by comparison. It just needs a tailwind. Carbon pollution taxation is that tailwind.

Lora Sandhusen

Leeds