The article in the url below by Ralph Nader and Toby Heaps outlines the case for a global tax on CO2 emissions:
“A tax on CO2 emissions -- not a cap-and-trade system -- offers the best prospect of meaningfully engaging China and the U.S., while avoiding the prospect of unhinged environmental protectionism.”
The authors argue that a cap-and-trade scheme is inefficient, potentially corrupting, and likely to be implemented unequally across countries:
“Because of the sheer scale of the challenge and the state of the hyperglobalized economy, we will need the same price on carbon everywhere, or it won't work anywhere.”
While generating the same goals as a cap-and-trade scheme, however, they argue that a global carbon tax represents a comprehensive solution that includes all countries and is consistent across jurisdictions. As such, they suggest it is more likely to achieve the intended outcome:
“An effective, harmonized tax on C02 emissions must stabilize the growth of atmospheric concentrations of GHGs by no later than 2020. The tax must also be adjusted annually, by a global body, according to this objective.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
We Need a Global Carbon Tax
By Ralph Nader and Toby Heaps
1291 words
3 December 2008
The Wall Street Journal
A17
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122826696217574539.html
