I don't know how much more explanation you need in addition to the face value of the words, but here's a more detailed breakdown.
1. Most vehicles and almost all industry require cheap and effective power. Most cars require carbon based fuel.
2. Carbon-based fuel provides cheap and effective power. It is available abundantly and can be used to power most modern industries and conveyances (planes, trains and plantains)
3. Carbon-based fuel is an inelastic good. Change in price does not change consumer demand significantly, compared to elastic goods like luxury items (higher price = less demand)
Therefore:
Taxing carbon means that you are increasing the price on a basic input on all industry and most consumers. Since taxing this particular good results in little change in consumer habits, and it is a necessary part of industrial capacity, it is therefore a tax on productivity.
The Egg Farmer who sold his eggs for $5 a dozen needs to have the eggs transported to the store, where the consumer then purchase and transport home. Both of these procedures require fuel. If fuel is free, the egg farmer makes $5 in pure profit. If the fuel is $5, the egg farmer therefore must increase his price to offset the fuel price. The consumer who purchase these must also expend extra money to purchase said eggs, increasing the hidden cost of the eggs by additional $5, which they must work to make. Therefore, this same dozen of eggs sold under a carbon tax must cause both the producer and the purchaser to both recoup the costs of fuel.
The end result of a carbon tax is that everything becomes more expensive, which is fine if:
1. There were reinvestments into reusable energy source
2. Government took measures to reduce inflation caused by the carbon tax.
In France, Holland, England, and Scandinavia, cities are small, condensed and public transport is reliable. Increasing carbon tax is often not a significant factor for tax on productivity because
1. People bike, a lot, in places like Holland and France
2. Public transport is cheap and cars are considered an item related to affluence rather than neccessity.
Therefore, a productivity tax is a in which the more productive you are (industrial output), the more you are taxed. It's a terrible thing to inflict upon Canadians (especially British Colombians) who must rely on carbon-based fuel to travel vast swaths of uninhabited land to get to and from work. It also stifles people who need to work more to pay for the carbon taxes and recoup the sunk costs associated with high energy input cost. The end result is:
1. People must work and drive more to offset carbon tax, offsetting what benefits the carbon tax is supposed do (reduce fuel usage)
2. People must drive less and do less with their lives because they can't afford it (making people less happy)
I hope that provides you with an adequate explanation. Many Canadians now fill up south of the border. Therefore, carbon tax and high fuel excise taxes is now creating a net outflow of capital to the US.