And most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon -- with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively, according to the laws of each nation, in ways that shift the burden of taxation from employment to pollution. This is by far the most effective and simplest way to accelerate solutions to this crisis.

    >  Former Vice President Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 2007.

Most experts would agree that the way to solve the problem is with a carbon tax.  [Carbon trading] is attractive to many politicians because it doesn't have that three-letter word 'tax'.  But it's a very inefficient way to accomplish the same thing that a carbon tax accomplishes.  It leaves itself open to special interests, corruption, inefficiencies.

    >  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg,  speaking to the Bali Climate Conference, 2007.

I want this forum to be the founding act of a new kind of politics. An environmental new deal in France and the world.  We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes... to tax pollution more, including fossil fuels, and to tax labour less.

    >  French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the need for a carbon tax

Until you deal with the issue of price, until you impose a corporate carbon tax, we will never get away from fossil fuels. It’s the only way this can be achieved. You have to advocate that if you’re serious about global warming. 

    >  Sen. Christopher Dodd, CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Candidate Debate, 2007

Predictable, transparent and universal, a carbon tax is a simple solution to a difficult problem.

    >  Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) commenting on the Stark-McDermott Save Our Climate Act