Fig. 1

Public income and expenditure as GDP-percentage generated by a carbon tax on net CO₂ emissions. Income/expenditure shares are derived from net CO₂ emissions, carbon price and GDP reported by AR5 scenarios compatible with the Paris agreement temperature target of 2 °C (see SI A). Positive net emissions result in tax income which gradually turns into a subsidy as net CO₂ emissions become negative with increasing deployment of Negative Emission Technologies. The uncertainty range  mainly results from different carbon price levels as consequence of diverging model characteristics and scenario setups (e.g., choice of technology mix, carbon budget and socio-economic factors)