Why Carbon Taxes Failed

In Why Carbon Taxes Failed, Volume 1, author Daniel Driscoll provides a rigorous political science analysis of why market-based decarbonization strategies often falter. For decades, carbon taxes were viewed as the primary global solution for climate change, yet they frequently result in political instability and policy abandonment. Driscoll investigates the foundational flaws in these approaches, arguing that governments often use simple market signals to avoid the difficult work of strategic investment and long-term planning.

The book introduces The Growth Model Policy Alignment Framework to explain how climate governance intersects with national economic structures. Driscoll demonstrates that carbon taxes fail when they misalign with existing growth strategies or penalize critical economic coalitions without offering viable green alternatives. This political science text moves beyond idealism to examine the pragmatic mechanisms of economic transition. Why Carbon Taxes Failed offers a critical look at the necessity of building a new political economy to achieve true decarbonization.