VANCOUVER (CBC) - B.C.'s New Democrats are asking supporters to give the party money from their rebate cheques for the carbon tax the NDP opposes.

The $100 climate action dividend was created by the provincial government to offset the 2.4 per cent carbon tax that will take effect on July 1.

"With gas prices already so high, Campbell's gas tax will only make life harder for ordinary people around the province. And what's worse, Campbell's gas tax will do nothing to fight climate change," a mass delivery e-mail sent by the NDP says.

B.C. NDP Leader Carol James launched an "axe the tax" campaign last week, calling the carbon tax program unfair.

"Let's actually put a real action plan in place that gets at the big polluters that will reduce emissions and doesn’t hurt, once again, the little guy," James said on Monday.

Economists are debating the merits of the tax.

John Richards, an economist at Simon Fraser University, said the climate action dividend cheques and tax breaks for low income earners will help combat high gas prices.

The only way to get people to change their energy consumption habits is to make it more expensive, he said.

"To be blunt, there is no way to significantly reduce demand without increasing price," said Richards.

The NDP contends people who live in rural areas will be hurt by the carbon tax because they have to drive long distances, but an economist from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which is often sympathetic to NDP policies, disagrees.

"People who live in rural areas actually drive less than most people in the city, particularly people who live in the suburbs," said Marc Lee.

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