Formerly holding leadership roles at Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Upstream Americas, Shell Energy and Shell Exploration and Production Compant, David Lawrence leads Lawrence Energy Group, LLC, as chairman. David Lawrence also writes Energy Perspectives, a blog syndicated by The Energy Collective on topics ranging from energy supply and reserves, to energy security, energy poverty and carbon pricing.

1. REDUCING CO2
EMISSIONS WITH A
CARBON TAX
By David Lawrence, Shell

2. Introduction
 Formerly holding leadership roles at Royal Dutch
Shell, Shell Upstream Americas, Shell Energy and
Shell Exploration and Production Compant, David
Lawrence leads Lawrence Energy Group, LLC, as
chairman. David Lawrence also writes Energy
Perspectives, a blog syndicated by The Energy
Collective on topics ranging from energy supply
and reserves, to energy security, energy poverty
and carbon pricing.
A site sharing insights from “the world’s best
thinkers on energy and climate,” The Energy
Collective publishes articles on energy, green
building, and political topics impacting the
environmental and energy sectors.

3. Reducing CO2 Emissions
 At the end of 2014, the site released an article addressing the
concept of carbon taxes. Titled “A Carbon Tax on Me: How to
Cut Emissions, Save Money, Invest for the Future and Help
End Energy Poverty,” the article addressed the challenges
arising from the world's increasing demands for energy while
lowering CO2 emissions.
The people of the world need energy. More than a million new
potential energy consumers are added to the world's
population every week. Energy contributes to many aspects
of the quality of human lives including longer life spans,
reduced infant mortality, improved health, increased
education and literacy, increased employment, higher GDP
and income per capita and reduced poverty. Energy heats,
cools and lights homes and businesses, and powers
industries and transportation. So, energy has been, is, and
will continue to be a force for good.

4. Carbon Tax
 The challenge is that the most reliable,
affordable and available energy sources, oil,
gas and coal, unfortunately produce CO2.
Fossil fuels provide us with more than 80
percent of our primary energy supply today.
But increasing levels of CO2 in the
atmosphere contribute to climate change - the
more CO2, the more the atmosphere warms.
And resultant climate change brings not only
higher temperatures and rising sea level, but
health and safety concerns, and potential
ecological, social, and economic disruption.

5. Conclusion
 The article proposes a simple, voluntary,
revenue neutral carbon price mechanism for
individuals.
People first determine the level of CO2 they
are producing. This allows them to calculate
how much to reduce the carbon footprint per
year by a given date. Thereafter, the individual
can apply a value to the CO2 output per ton
that is the annual carbon fee. These funds can
then be used to invest in meaningful causes,
such as energy poverty, improvements in
energy efficiency, and research in clean
energy technologies.