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Classic tragedy of the commons. Prices for fossil fuels don't account for the negative externalities, the costs of which are borne by all life on Earth and heav
by eloff 10y ago
Classic tragedy of the commons. Prices for fossil fuels don't account for the negative externalities, the costs of which are borne by all life on Earth and heavily biased to weigh on future generations. The people in the future that don't consume any fossil fuels will pay the heaviest price for their ancestors' carelessness. One could fix this quite easily just by taxing fossil fuels enough to factor into the negative externalities - except you'd have to legislate that, equally, in every country on Earth (or at least the G20.) But the temptation is for nation-states to cheat and advantage their own economies over the others by not passing that kind of legislation, Trump-style. I don't think it will ever happen, it's all quite sad and future generations will rightfully curse our short-sightedness.
- inetknght 10y agoIf you leave it to just the G20 then you will end up moving energy production to the non-member states and sell energy at a higher cost to boot. That's rather a non-starter.
- clort 10y agoWe could tax use of fossil fuels. That means direct consumption, if you drive a car, or indirect if you buy products shipped on fuel hungry ships, or strawberries flown in from half way around the world, and not least electricity from a gas fired power station wherever it is situated. Since we in the G20 consume most of the energy and goods, then we would be paying the most penalty for this. We would have to trust that our governments actually did something with the money though, not just put it in with general revenue and let the future deal with the problems it was supposed to be paying for.
- jawarner 10y agoA border adjustment tax accounting for the CO2 used in production abroad would balance out this problem.
- LoSboccacc 10y agothen the state you buy from will a have great incentive to cheat in their co2 report, and states out of g20 are renowed for their ethics.