Climate change is now a climate emergency, as declared by Hawaii’s Legislature last year. This emergency is clear, as both the Arctic and Antarctic poles are currently well above freezing temperatures. It is unlikely that all the polar ice will melt, but if it did, sea levels would rise 220 feet. Unfortunately, this emergency declaration has not resulted in the legislature passing the bills necessary to aggressively lower our carbon emissions.

However, this inaction is not due to a lack of good ideas. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced several reports over the last few decades outlining the dire impacts carbon emissions will have on our world. This body has also said that governments need to put a price on carbon to make polluters pay. This would encourage people and corporations to shift their behavior away from costly carbon activities to more eco-friendly ones.

Hawaii’s Legislature has contemplated this action for years and even commissioned a study to research the results of such a plan. The study showed that this plan could cut Hawaii’s emissions by 40% by 2045 compared to 2019 levels.

Putting a price on carbon leads some to believe they will be worse off financially due to the increased cost of goods. However, when the revenue generated from this plan is rebated back to Hawaii households in equal shares, most people would be wealthier over the next decade.

This is because visitors and the highest income earners are the ones who use the most carbon products and would pay the highest amount towards the carbon price. The highest 20% of income earners in Hawaii consume over twice as much gasoline and natural gas as low and middle-income earners and use more than five times as much air and water transportation.

House Bill 2278, nicknamed the “Carbon Cashback” bill, would implement this program for Hawaii statewide. It passed through the House chamber this year but was never scheduled for a hearing in the Senate. This, despite a similar bill passing through the entire Senate chamber in 2020.

With costs rising dramatically across the islands and the world, this plan would start putting extra cash in people’s hands when they need it the most. Beginning our necessary transition away from fossil fuels will shelter our islands from the massive price swings of the global oil market.

In addition, the impacts of climate change will hit the low and middle-income households the hardest as they have fewer resources to protect themselves against the effects of climate change and generally live in areas with higher temperatures. HB 2278 moderates that impact because it gives them a net benefit, because their rebate would be larger than the higher prices they pay resulting from the carbon tax. The average family in the lowest income quintile would have a net benefit of $900 a year early in the program.

Had we implemented this plan decades ago, rising oil and gas costs wouldn’t be something we’d worry about. Our electricity and transportation sectors would have already transitioned away from carbon sources.

Carbon Cashback polls very highly, with over 80% of registered Democrats and two-thirds of all voters supporting the plan. Hawaii’s Democratic Party put its name behind this idea four years ago. Despite this, Democratic legislators have yet to pass this into law.

Although one key deadline for HB 2278 has passed, if it acts now, the Senate still has the power to make sure this bill passes through its chamber and on to the governor’s desk. The climate crisis demands that we act now, or we will pay the price with interest later.

Molly Whiteley is a former public school teacher/administrator and a state co-coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Hawaii; Ronald Reilly, a retired medical lab technologist, co-leads the Hawaii Island chapter of CCL; Keith Neal is a retired aerospace engineer and an environmental, labor and social justice advocate.