I’m deeply curious about the implementation of a carbon tax on large corporations, as it seems like an economically straightforward means of beginning to combat climate change on a larger scale. However, I’m not certain of the specifics/variety of carbon taxes which have been proposed and also lack a sufficient knowledge of economics to know if there are any difficult-to-discern downsides to the concept (My education is in ecology so I’m only seeing benefits of such an idea). I’d love to be more educated on the topic, and know why it hasn’t received widespread acceptance yet.
In: Economics
One of the drawbacks is it sends out the message that it’s OK to pollute if you have the money.
To be effective a carbon tax has to be very high, that’s not something many politicians would like to do.
There’s also the problem of deciding what the carbon footprint of a product is. Take a tin can for example. The steel may, or may not be recycled, or it could be a mixture of both. Making steel from scrap has a lower carbon footprint than making it from iron ore. Steel is an internationally traded item, so tracing it’s origins has difficulties. Not all countries are free from corruption so in many cases certificates of origin are worthless.
Latest Answers