When it comes to lowering carbon emissions in corporate America, momentum is building behind what is often an unpopular word: “tax.” This week, tech giant IBM became the latest major U.S. company to publicly advocate for the federal government to levy a carbon tax, pledging to push Congress, state, and local officials to back the plan.
A carbon tax is applied per ton of carbon dioxide or CO2 a company’s operations emit, and is intended to financially incentivize a shift towards lower or zero-carbon sources of energy and means of doing business. That’s why IBM backing a carbon tax is such a big deal; the company’s energy-intensive data centers create a whole lot of emissions, so the fact that they advocate for a carbon tax exhibits a whole lot about their outlook on corporate responsibility.
