Jack Evans: Pages 4-7, 13

distant targets instead. After thirty years of world summits, international conferences, negotiations, pledges and promises to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to +1.5°C relative to preindustrial levels, this challenge remains. How can we ever tackle climate change if citizens are not willing to vote to sacrifice their way of life? If climate change is partly an economic problem, then part of the solution lies in economics too. This idea is at the heart of my research. I want to find fair and efficient ways to tackle climate change and encourage climate justice through economic policy in a way that can gain popular support in democracies.

In particular, I am interested in how a carbon tax could be implemented widely around the world. Economists agree that tax can be a highly efficient tool for encouraging behavioural change in an economy. The climate crisis cannot be addressed if private companies and individuals do not change their behaviour to account for the fact that what they produce and consume results in carbon emissions. A carbon tax would be a straightforward policy intervention to disincentivise people from consuming more environmentally harmful products by increasing the price of goods based on their carbon footprint. By forcing consumers to start to consider the unintended negative consequences of their choices, a carbon tax has immense potential to encourage more climate conscious behaviour. It would also raise much needed funds for further green measures.

But, as the gilets jaunes movement in France demonstrated, implementing this in practice is fraught with political danger. Those of lower wealth and income who rely on their car to drive to work every day, who cannot necessarily afford to buy an expensive new electric or fuel efficient vehicle, would be hit disproportionately hard by any new carbon tax, not to mention that everyone would face higher prices across the board. This makes the measure a hard sell for elected politicians, and there is little functional purpose in proposing any measure with no hope of successful political passage. What are the right supporting redistributive policies we need to alleviate the shock that a carbon tax and help it to achieve popular support, so that we can put forward a meaningful carbon tax proposal? This will be at the core of my work over the next three years.

Finally, I will also be evaluating some of the existing policies to tackle climate change, such as the expansion of the Low Emission Zone in London or the European Trading Scheme on carbon emissions. We need to assess at this point whether such policies are actually effective and should be replicated in other contexts, or whether they are ineffective and have unintended consequences and need modification. This wonderful opportunity would never have been possible without the support of my Thatcher Scholarship. In Oxford’s vibrant environment, I am surrounded by people who are driven by the desire to make a difference in the world. They inspire me and motivate me to strive for excellence; to ensure that my work can contribute to a solution to climate change. There is no time to waste.