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> to price carbon emissions "A carbon tax offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions" is what 27 Nobel laureate economists and about 4000

by sampo 6y ago

> to price carbon emissions "A carbon tax offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions" is what 27 Nobel laureate economists and about 4000 other economists said in a statement in January 2019 [1]. There are some opposing opinions on some details [2]. Anyway, to an outsider this appears to be the scientific consensus. [1] https://www.econstatement.org/ https://www.econstatement.org/ [2] http://standupeconomist.com/why-im-not-signing-the-economists-statement-on-carbon-dividends/ http://standupeconomist.com/why-im-not-signing-the-economist...

iagovar 6y ago
Having a carbon tax would require to measure carbon output somewhere, isn't it? How would that work? I mean, where in the chain does the measure take place? How is it accounted? For some reason carbon tax seems like a lot of extra and complicated steps to just tax fossil fuels way more. If we tax oil, coal and gas a lot, that's basically a simple way of taxing carbon emissions, isn't it? It's way simpler to manage, and actually sound like something realistic.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- sampo 6y ago
  > For some reason carbon tax seems like a lot of extra and complicated steps to just tax fossil fuels way more. This is what carbon tax means. Taxing fuels according to their carbon content. Carbon content is easy to determine precisely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tax The imprecise part would be estimating and placing import taxes for products and services from countries that do not take part in the carbon tax system.
  - gpm 6y ago
    > The imprecise part would be estimating and placing import taxes for products and services from countries that do not take part in the carbon tax system. And countries that would pretend to tax carbon but "not try that hard" to stop illegal untaxed fossil fuel use.
  - kps 6y ago
    Yes, Canada has a carbon tax but no carbon tariff, with the obvious incentive to move economic activity to dirtier countries.

by sampo 6y ago

iagovar 6y ago

Having a carbon tax would require to measure carbon output somewhere, isn't it? How would that work? I mean, where in the chain does the measure take place? How is it accounted? For some reason carbon tax seems like a lot of extra and complicated steps to just tax fossil fuels way more. If we tax oil, coal and gas a lot, that's basically a simple way of taxing carbon emissions, isn't it? It's way simpler to manage, and actually sound like something realistic.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sampo 6y ago
> For some reason carbon tax seems like a lot of extra and complicated steps to just tax fossil fuels way more. This is what carbon tax means. Taxing fuels according to their carbon content. Carbon content is easy to determine precisely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tax The imprecise part would be estimating and placing import taxes for products and services from countries that do not take part in the carbon tax system.
- gpm 6y ago
  > The imprecise part would be estimating and placing import taxes for products and services from countries that do not take part in the carbon tax system. And countries that would pretend to tax carbon but "not try that hard" to stop illegal untaxed fossil fuel use.
- kps 6y ago
  Yes, Canada has a carbon tax but no carbon tariff, with the obvious incentive to move economic activity to dirtier countries.