The poor are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change — yet under many proposals, they would also bear the biggest burden for attacking it. The socialist case for a carbon dividend — which would impose a tax on carbon emissions and then rebate the revenue in equal proportion back to the people — is that we can disrupt the dirty economy while reducing, rather than exacerbating, economic inequality.

Critics of capitalism are understandably skeptical of market-based policies, which have had disastrous consequences in health and education. And a carbon tax is no panacea. It would be a complement, rather than a substitute, to democratic planning. But a carbon tax should be a central component of the “Green New Deal” championed by leftists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Pricing carbon emissions would change the calculations of businesses and local, state, and federal governments on a whole range of climate issues while strengthening the hand of activists fighting to block new fossil-fuel infrastructure, provide quality mass transportation, and invest in renewable energy.