From economists to academics to policy-makers, proponents of a carbon tax are growing. Consider the chair and CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex W. Tillerson, who last year told an audience at Stanford University that a direct and transparent tax could provide "the stability and predictability industrial companies need to make long-term, capital-intensive investments."

A carbon tax is simply a surcharge on fossil-fuel-based energy consumption. The less fuel we burn, the less carbon is emitted. A carbon tax will discourage the use of fossil fuels and, as a result, strengthen profitability through lower operating costs.

A low-carbon economy is an inevitable reality. Walmart requires its 100,000-plus suppliers to submit their total carbon footprints, and JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Morgan Stanley include carbon criteria in investment decisions. In December, federal Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice said, "the science overall is relatively clear on all of this, and Canada wants to see carbon emissions reduced." If one message rang clear from the Copenhagen climate change negotiations, it was that the world is acting on carbon emissions. Corporations have moved from stalling to identifying opportunities.

Why would business leaders around the world speak out in favour of additional taxation? Compared to a cap-and-trade system, a carbon tax is more transparent and offers price certainty. Cap-and-trade schemes set a maximum emissions threshold (the "cap"), and the price of carbon fluctuates to meet the government-set cap. In addition to masking the cost of carbon to buyers, cap-and-trade schemes reduce certainty by failing to provide even medium-term price stability. Taxes, on the other hand, establish a price for carbon and allow the marketplace to make decisions with far greater certainty about operating expenses for the foreseeable future.

In addition, introducing a carbon tax is a great incentive to maximize operational efficiency. Your business's carbon emissions are waste products generated from burning fossil fuels; in other words, your carbon footprint is a unit of wastage. Including a carbon tax in prices allows you to identify products and services designed in the most energy- and carbon-efficient ways.

Of course such a program should not, nor is it intended to, suppress economic development. Instead, sound carbon tax policies reallocate capital to efficient, sustainable projects and clean-tech innovation. For example, carbon taxes were essential in supporting the Danish wind industry; in 2008, this was an $8.4-billion export market. And carbon tax policy can be revenue neutral, meaning tax revenues are offset by reducing taxes in other areas, such as personal income.

Even in the absence of a carbon tax, forward-thinking managers, including many in Atlantic Canada, have already taken a leadership role on carbon management. They recognize that the organizations that understand emissions, and the steps needed to reduce them, have an advantage in today's marketplace.

We can act now and lead, or defer action and lag. What will you do?

Emily Richardson is the manager of carbon services at Carbon Sense Solutions, a Halifax-based carbon-management consultancy and clean-tech developer. She was an accredited observer with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development at the United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.