July 10, 2009 -- Source: Yarra Valley Climate Action Group
Experts: Carbon Tax needed and
NOT Cap-and-Trade Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)
The following eminent scientists, economists and writers variously argue strongly FOR a global Carbon Tax that will directly put a price on greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution and enable urgently required rapid transformation to a non-carbon economy.
They variously argue AGAINST carbon pricing based on a Kyoto Protocol-based Cap-and Trade Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) (of which the pro-coal Australian Government's carbon pollution-increasing and accordingly oxymoronic Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) is a particularly flawed and disastrous example: Australia’s "5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020"
1. Professor James Hansen (top US climate scientist; Head, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies; adjunct professor, Columbia; University, New York, USA), February 2009: "The most honest effective way to achieve a carbon price capable of driving our economy and our society to the clean world of the future is "Carbon Tax with 100% Dividend" … This tax, and the knowledge that it would continue to increase in the future, would spur innovations in energy efficiency and carbon-free energy sources. The dividend would put money in the hands of the public, allowing them to purchase vehicles and other products that reduce their carbon footprint and thus their taxes. The person doing better than average would obtain more from the dividend than paid in the tax. The tax would affect building designs and serve as an effective enforcer of energy efficient building codes that are now widely ignored. The need to replace inefficient infrastructure would spur the economy. Tax and 100% dividend can drive innovation and economic growth with a snowballing effect. Carbon emissions will plummet far faster than alternative top-down regulations. Our infrastructure will be modernized for the clean energy future. There will be no need to go the most extreme environments on Earth for the last drop of fossil fuel, to squeeze oil from tar shale, or develop other unconventional fossil fuels.A tax on coal, oil and gas is simple. It can be collected easily and reliably at the first point of sale, at the mine or oil well, or at the port of entry. This approach also implies the fastest most effective way to international agreements … The abject failure of Cap & Trade was illuminated for all to see by the Kyoto Protocol, the granddaddy of all Cap & Trade schemes. Even countries that accepted the toughest emission reduction targets, such as Japan, saw their emissions actually increase. The problem is the inevitable loopholes in such complex approaches, which take years to negotiate and implement. The Congressional Budget Office provides a comparison of carbon taxes to cap-and-trade. That report concludes that a given emission reduction could be achieved at a fraction of the cost via a carbon tax, as opposed to cap-and-trade. Another useful comparison is also available. The worst thing about cap-and-trade [ETS], from a climate standpoint, is that it will surely be inadequate to achieve the sharp reduction of emissions that is needed. Thus cap-and-trade would practically guarantee disastrous climate change for our children and grandchildren. The only solution to the climate problem is to leave much of the fossil fuels in the ground. That requires a high enough carbon price that we move on to our energy future beyond fossil fuels. Summary. The honest approach, the effective approach, for solving the global warming problem would be a tax with 100% dividend. The public is not stupid. They will understand that the hooks and eyes of a less comprehensive more dissembling approach will be put there for some reason other than saving the future for their children. One of the biggest advantages of the Tax and Dividend approach is its simplicity, which would allow it to be introduced quickly. The Kyoto-like Cap & Trade is notoriously slow to negotiate and implement, as well as being ineffective in the end. A related point is that an effective international accord could be implemented with only a few of the major economies. Import duties on countries not imposing a comparable tax would surely bring broad rapid compliance." [1].
2. Jonathan Leake (science and environment editor of the UK Sunday Times), March 2009: "Britain’s faith in carbon trading as a way of reducing greenhouse gases could be dangerously misplaced, according to an independent academic working with the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Dr Chris Hope of the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School … [has] a far wider conclusion: the current European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is deeply flawed and should be replaced – or at least augmented – with a green tax … For the ETS to work, the price has to be set at a level that makes it worthwhile for consumers to cut their energy use. According to Hope’s research, the minimum price needed is about £85 per tonne [A$173] , rising at roughly 2 to 3 per cent a year … Prices now stand at roughly £9.50 [A$19] per tonne of CO2 – less than 12 per cent of what Hope’s calculations show is needed.… He believes a market-based trading system such as the ETS is very unlikely to generate consistent high prices, and this instability could undermine the whole point of the scheme". [2].
3. Professor William Nordhaus (Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University, USA), March 2009 "The international community is making huge wager on the Kyoto model. The wager is that the cap-and-trade structure contained in the model will do the job of slowing global warming. The new United States Administration advocated that the U.S. adopt this system as its contribution top solving the global problem, and the primary legislation in the U.S. Congress is firmly a cap-and-trade proposal. But, as I have suggested above, the cap-and-trade approach is a poor choice of mechanism. It is untested in the international context; it has been unable to attain anything close to universal participation; and it has the inherent flaws just described. It is unlikely that the Kyoto model, even if strengthened, can achieve its climate objectives in an efficient and effective manner. To bet the world’s climate system and global environment on an untested approach with such clear structural flaws would appear a reckless gamble. History is lettered with failed institutions. You need only to look today at the wreckage of the current financial system to see the latest example of the effects of failed regulatory and risk-management design. So, if the Kyoto model turns out to be another failed model, it has lots of company. But it would be better to recognize and change it now, rather than in one or two more decades of ineffective and inefficient efforts to slow emissions. The international community should move quickly to replace the current cap-and-trade structure with one in which the central economic mechanism is a tax on greenhouse-gas emissions." [3].
4. Professor Jacqueline McGlade (Director of the European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, marine biologist and Professor of Environmental Informatics in the Department of Mathematics at University College London, UK), March 2009: "His [Nordhaus’] idea is very sensible. We need to move the burden of taxation away from labour to resources — and tax not just on carbon but other resources such as water to tackle the far wider environmental and resource problems we face." [4].
5. Professor Daniel M. Kammen, (Energy and Resources Group and Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley), March 2009: "Evolving the filed of climate solutions science: the economics of clean and sustainable energy must be supported for individuals and companies to achieve a shared vision; a price on greenhouse gas emissions is essential (but alone it is not sufficient); innovative financing is needed to advantage clean energy; innovation and implementation is needed in the North and South; scientific, and policy innovations open the door for quantified cases of clean development that, in turn, can reset the political landscape in favour of a low carbon future." [5].
6. Professor Barry Brook (Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia), 2009: "1. A cap and trade mechanism is by its nature, an all consuming policy instrument that extinguishes the effectiveness of voluntary actions, harming rather than enhancing the evolution of a low carbon economy. 2. With a cap and trade approach, the target is everything as both the emissions cap and emissions floor are locked in. No one can do better than the cap, and so the cap must be a science based all consuming sustainable target pathway that won’t lock in failure. As we don’t yet have the widespread political and economic preparedness to commit to an all consuming sustainable target pathway (either nationally or internationally), the cap and trade mechanism is the wrong approach and we should instead focus on a carbon tax with complementary mechanisms that would transform the economy more effectively than the [Australian] proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS)." [6].
7. Larry Lohmann (climate economist, The Corner House, London, UK); summary of book "Carbon Trading", by Larry Lohmann, editor, 2006 [implicit in the GHG pollution cessation argument is taxing GHG pollution out of existence]: "The main cause of global warming is rapidly increasing carbon dioxide emissions -- primarily the result of burning fossil fuels. Some responses to the crisis, however, are causing new and severe problems -- and may even increase global warming. This seems to be the case with carbon trading -- the main current international response to climate change and the centrepiece of the Kyoto Protocol. Carbon trading has two parts. First, governments hand out free tradable rights to emit carbon dioxide to big industrial polluters, allowing them to make money from business as usual. Second, companies buy additional pollution credits from projects in the South that claim to emit less greenhouse gas than they would have without the investment. Most of the carbon credits being sold to industrialized countries come from polluting projects, such as schemes that burn methane from coal mines or waste dumps, which do little to wean the world off fossil fuels. Tree plantations claimed to absorb carbon dioxide, in addition, often drive people off their lands and destroy biological diversity without resulting in progress toward alternative energy systems. This exhaustively-documented but highly-readable book takes a broad look at the social, political and environmental dimensions of carbon trading and investigates climate mitigation alternatives. It provides a short history of carbon trading and discusses a number of 'lessons unlearned'. Detailed case studies from ten Third World countries -- Guatemala, Ecuador, Uganda, Tanzania, Costa Rica, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, South Africa and Brazil -- expose the outcomes on the ground of various carbon 'offset' schemes. The book concludes that the 'carbon trading' approach to the problem of rapid climate change is both ineffective and unjust. The bulk of fossil fuels must be left in the ground if climate chaos is to be avoided." [7].
8. Dr Robert J. Shapiro (Chair, U.S. Climate Task Force and finance consultancy firm Sonecon; undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the Clinton Administration), January 2009: "A cap-and-trade system is very unlikely to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions — and more likely to introduce new, trillion-dollar risks for the financial system. The clearest illustration of the problems with cap-and-trade is the European Trading Scheme, based on the Kyoto protocols covering most of Europe. According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, there’s little if any evidence that the ETS has had any effect at all on emissions in Europe. One reason is that major emitters such as Germany simply exempt many of their facilities generating greenhouse gases. Another factor is the "offset" permits that European "transition" economies, themselves exempt from caps, can sell to other ETS members. According to a recent study in Nature, once we set aside those offsets, emissions under the ETS have actually increased by 10 percent. The system also has failed to establish a stable price for carbon — a goal widely considered a prerequisite for any effective climate change effort. To the contrary, the prices for ETS permits are highly volatile ... Volatility like the kind experienced in the ETS would translate into much more volatile energy prices, unsettling everyone’s markets and undermining investment. And the volatile prices for the permits themselves, traded on financial markets, would attract speculation and new financial derivatives, putting us at risk for another crisis. Even more regulations cannot eliminate most of cap-and-trade’s inherent price volatility or the incentives for its participants, including governments, to evade or manipulate the system. These are the main reasons why the father of climate-change politics, Al Gore now prefers carbon-based taxes over cap-and-trade. A carbon tax system would apply a stable price to carbon, creating direct incentives to develop and use less carbon-intensive fuels and more energy-efficient technologies. President-elect Barack Obama is committed equally to fighting climate change and restoring economic growth. The best way to do both is to give up cap-and-trade and learn to love carbon-based taxes." [8].
9. Dr Robert J. Shapiro (Chair, U.S. Climate Task Force and finance consultancy firm Sonecon; undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the Clinton Administration), March 2009: "The proper approach here is a straightforward one. First, enact a carbon-based tax to move people and firms to prefer and choose less-carbon-intensive fuels and technologies. Second, as we change the relative prices of different forms of energy based on their effects on the climate, protect people’s incomes and the overall economy by returning all or virtually all of the revenues through payroll tax cuts or lump-sum payments to households. Third, use the certainty of a substantial tax on carbon, along with additional subsidies, to promote the development of new climate-friendly fuels and technologies that can capture a new and fast-growing global market.I recently co-authored a study that used the same modeling system as the Department of Energy to estimate the environmental and economic consequences of applying this specific approach. We found that we can effectively address climate change without harming our economy ... And after the carnage of Wall Street’s recent rounds of malfeasance, it is painfully clear that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department simply lack the ability (and the resources) to effectively police complex, fast-moving markets involving many, many thousands or millions of trades per day. Despite its advocates’ good intentions, cap-and-trade could put America at risk of another meltdown — one originally created and financed by the government itself. None of these painful and difficult issues arise with a carbon tax-shift. Rather, it could enable us to effectively do our part in addressing climate change, while protecting or even enhancing our economic prospects. That’s a deal Congress cannot afford to pass up." [9].
10. Public Citizen (Public Citizen is a US national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts), 27 June 2009: "Climate change legislation that narrowly passed the House of Representatives late Friday must be strengthened. The legislation will not solve our climate crisis but will enrich already powerful oil, coal and nuclear power companies. President Obama got it right when he announced in February his plan to impose strict new limits on greenhouse gas emissions and require polluters to pay. But HR 2454 enshrines a new legal right to pollute and gives away 85 percent of the credits to that right to polluters." [10].
11. Stephen Lendman (leading liberal US analyst and commentator), 8 July 2009: "On May 15, HR 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACESA) was introduced in the House purportedly "To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy." In fact, it's to let corporate polluters reap huge windfall profits by charging consumers more for energy and fuel as well as create a new bubble through carbon trading derivatives speculation. It does nothing to address environmental issues, yet on June 26 the House narrowly passed (229 - 212) and sent it to the Senate to be debated and voted on… Strong-arm pressure, threats and bribes got the bill through the House. Forty-four Democrats opposed it. Eight Republicans backed it. Over 1200 pages long, few if any lawmakers read it… It contains enough loopholes to make its claimed performance standards worthless, one of which prohibits the EPA from using the Clean Air Act to regulate future greenhouse gas emissions. That alone means they'll proliferate beyond what new technology reduces on its own, and only then if it's profitable to do it… Overall, carbon trading is a scam, first promoted in the 1980s under Reagan. Clinton made it a key provision of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. He signed it in 1998, but it was never ratified. As of February 2009, 183 nations did both, but independent scientists call it "miserable failure" needing to be scrapped and replaced by a meaningful alternative… Contributing $4,452,585 to Democrats in 2008 (around $1 million to Obama) was mere pocket change for what it can reap from scams like cap and trade disguised as an environmental plan. The scheme was devised. GS [Goldman Sachs] helped write it. The House passed it and sent it to the Senate. Unless stopped, it will transfer more of our wealth to corporate polluters and Wall Street on top of all they've stolen so far from derivatives fraud and the imploded housing and other bubbles. And Goldman will lead the way finding new ways to do it until there's nothing left to extract." [11].
12. Catherine Austin Fitts (US commentator), 1 July 2009: "If you think the housing and credit bubble diminished your financial security and your community, or the bailouts, or the rising gas prices did as well, hold on to your hat. The worst may be yet to come. Carbon trading is gearing up to make the housing and derivatives bubbles look like target practice. Here are some comments on H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009: "economic colonization of the heartland"-Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Kentucky); "a scam" -Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California); "massive transfer of wealth" -Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin); "Carbon markets can and will be manipulated using the same Wall Street sleights of hand that brought us the financial crisis." -Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)." [12].
13. Greenpeace (leading global environment protection organization), 25 June 2009: "As it comes to the floor, the Waxman-Markey bill sets emission reduction targets far lower than science demands, then undermines even those targets with massive offsets. The giveaways and preferences in the bill will actually spur a new generation of nuclear and coal-fired power plants to the detriment of real energy solutions. To support such a bill is to abandon the real leadership that is called for at this pivotal moment in history. We simply no longer have the time for legislation this weak." [13].
14. Kenneth Davidson (respected economics columnist for "The Age" newspaper, Melbourne; co-editor of "Dissent"), 2009: "The [Australian] Rudd Government's environmental credentials are in tatters: the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has been exposed as sham. This shouldn't be surprising. There isn't one cap-and-trade scheme in the world that has resulted in a reduction in carbon emissions. Instead, such schemes have made money for the biggest polluters and created a new branch of the derivatives industry that creates new wealth opportunities for brokers and financiers. Rudd's cap and trade scheme benefits the worst polluters. But the Australian scheme is special. It has been rorted at the planning stage … The carbon scheme is not simply weak. It is fraudulent. In his new Quarterly Essay: Quarry Vision, Coal, Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom, Guy Pearse shows that Australia's biggest emitters will be able to meet their targets by buying emission permits from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea in return for promises by these countries to reduce the rate of deforestation ... opaque government built on unnecessary complexity, like its close relative, secrecy, is a one-way street to corruption, especially when the government faces an incompetent opposition. Carbon taxes were imposed by Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Italy in the 1990s. Sweden is the most successful country in the world in reducing its carbon footprint, according to the German environmental group Germanwatch. Between 1990 and 2006 Sweden cut its emissions by 9 per cent, exceeding the target set by Kyoto, while at the same time real growth increased 44 per cent." [14].
15. Guy Pearse (Australian climate and energy commentator): "[Australian government commissioned economist] Garnaut had recognized Indonesian and PNG rainforests as the perfect place to hide greenhouse pollution on the cheap and avoid emission cuts in Australia. Annual emissions from deforestation in these two countries alone were 3 times Australia’s total emissions. Paying landholders not to log could effectively offset pollution in Australia – and various estimates cited by Garnaut – from the Stern Report and the World Bank – suggested the price might be US$1-3$ - perhaps less than 1/10th of the price of a tonne of carbon otherwise … Having allowed Australia to outsource all its emissions cuts [overseas], Rudd nationalized the cost with a spectatcular money-go-round of compensation payments: to small businesses, householders, and dozens of adjusted welfare payments. The ostensible aim was to help offset the impact of emissions trading on energy costs – estimated at A$312 per household per year [Australia population 21 million]. The real was ensuring that in the flurry of cheques, people couldn’t properly identify the winners and losers. "No-one gets a free ride", said the government. Their glossy PR material claimed that "under the scheme, Australia’s biggest polluters will pay for the pollution they generate". But, what the government carefully didn’t say was that the biggest polluters would only pay for on average one tonne in every 5 tonnes of their pollution – the rest of us paid for the other 4 tonnes." [15]. 16. Professor Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University; 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate; former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank), December 2007: "The only principle that has some ethical basis is equal emission rights per capita (with some adjustments - for instance, the US has already used up its share of the global atmosphere, so it should have fewer emission allowances). But adopting this principle would entail such huge payments from developed countries to developing countries, that, regrettably, the former are unlikely to accept it. Economic efficiency requires that those who generate emissions pay the cost, and the simplest way of forcing them to do so is through a carbon tax. There could be an international agreement that every country would impose a carbon tax at an agreed rate (reflecting the global social cost). Indeed, it makes far more sense to tax bad things, like pollution, than to tax good things like work and savings. Such a tax would increase global efficiency. Of course, polluting industries like the cap-and-trade system. While it provides them an incentive not to pollute, emission allowances offset much of what they would have to pay under a tax system. Some firms can even make money off the deal. Moreover, Europe has grown used to the concept of cap-and-trade, and many are loathe to try an alternative. Yet, no one has proposed an acceptable set of principles for assigning emission rights." [16].
17. Professor James Hansen (top US climate scientist; Head, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies; adjunct professor, Columbia; University, New York, USA), February 2009: "The essential step, then, is to phase out coal emissions over the next two decades. And to declare off limits artificial high-carbon fuels such as tar sands and shale while moving to phase out dependence on conventional petroleum as well. This requires nothing less than an energy revolution based on efficiency and carbon-free energy sources. Alas, we won't get there with the Waxman-Markey bill, a monstrous absurdity hatched in Washington after energetic insemination by special interests. For all its "green" aura, Waxman-Markey locks in fossil fuel business-as-usual and garlands it with a Ponzi-like "cap-and-trade" [ETS] scheme … There is an alternative, of course, and that is a carbon fee, applied at the source (mine or port of entry) that rises continually. I prefer the "fee-and-dividend" version of this approach in which all revenues are returned to the public on an equal, per capita basis, so those with below-average carbon footprints come out ahead … The fact is that the climate course set by Waxman-Markey is a disaster course. Their bill is an astoundingly inefficient way to get a tiny reduction of emissions. It's less than worthless, because it will delay by at least a decade starting on a path that is fundamentally sound from the standpoints of both economics and climate preservation". [17]. [17]. James Hansen, "G-8 failure reflects failure on climate change", The Huffington Post, 9 July 2009: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-james-hansen/g-8-failure-reflects-us-f_b_228597.html .
18. Carbon Tax Center (US organization demanding the pricing of carbon efficiently and equitably), 2009: "Why revenue-neutral carbon taxes are essential, what's happening now, and how you can help. The Obama Administration and the new Congress are being called upon to address 21st Century climate realities. In a carbon-constrained world, a permanent and increasing U.S. carbon tax is essential to reduce the emissions that are driving global warming. A carbon tax is a tax on the carbon content of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas). A carbon tax is the most economically efficient means to convey crucial price signals and spur carbon-reducing investment and low-carbon behavior. Our spreadsheet shows how fast emissions will fall. Carbon taxes should be phased in so businesses and households have time to adapt. A carbon tax should be revenue neutral: government can soften the impacts of added costs by paying back the tax revenues ("dividends") or reducing other taxes ("tax-shifting"). Support for a carbon tax is growing steadily among public officials; economists; scientists; policy experts; business, religious, and environmental leaders; and ordinary citizens (see: http://www.carbontax.org/who-supports/ )". [18].
19. Carbon Tax Center (US organization demanding the pricing of carbon efficiently and equitably) lists of quotations supporting a Carbon Tax from numerous public officials; scientists and economists; environmental, business and religious leaders; corporate editorial positions; authors, writers, pundits and newspaper columnists. [19].
20. Richard Denniss (executive director of the Australia Institute, Canberra, Australia), 18 February 2009: "Many Australians have waited a long time for a government to do something about climate change and no doubt some of them would be reluctant to see the CPRS [proposed the Australian ETS] fail for that reason. However, most of these people are unlikely to understand that the 5 per cent emissions reduction target is not a step in the right direction but a legislative barrier to reducing emissions any further. The CPRS [ETS] locks us into failure, in that it will prevent emissions falling below the timid targets proposed by the Rudd Government. So, where to from here? A simple way to get the ball rolling without locking in the worst features of the CPRS {ETS] is to introduce a carbon levy of $25 a tonne. This is the same price the Rudd Government expects to flow from its CPRS [ETS] and it has already done the work figuring out how to provide compensation. An important benefit of such an approach is that we don't need to start from scratch. The administrative capacity required to collect a carbon levy is consistent with that required to introduce the CPRS [ETS]. That is, both systems require the monitoring of emission levels, the determination of liability and the reconciliation of who has paid their carbon bills. The other benefits of a carbon levy are its simplicity, its compatibility with simple measures such as investment in household energy efficiency, and the fact we don't have to set our targets until international agreement is reached in Copenhagen. Unlike the CPRS [ETS] , a carbon levy would not discourage individual action." [20].
21. Paul Taylor (Reuters economics columnist), 22 July 2009: "Cynics say the French never saw a market they didn’t want to regulate, or an economic activity they didn’t want to tax. Now this levy-happy nation, with one of the highest fiscal burdens in the world, is eying a new target for taxation: carbon. And in this case, they may just be right …Most experts agree that a carbon tax, based on a global price for carbon, would be the simplest and most logical way to use market forces to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. But it is not politically feasible in most countries. The French, with their Cartesian logic and their tradition of a strong, dirigiste state, are among the few nations outside the Nordic area with the political will to impose one. We can only hope that other countries will follow in their slipstream." [21].
22. John Humphreys (Economist, Research Fellow, Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney, Australia), 2007: "With growing public concern and constant calls for action on climate change, it is important that we have a full debate about what is the best response. Many politicians have rushed to support poor climate change policy. Our government is currently using an approach of regulation and subsidy while considering the possibility of implementing a carbon trading scheme. We would be better served if the government replaced all of these options with a revenue-neutral carbon tax. A carbon tax is preferable to a carbon trading system because it is more efficient, effective, simple, flexible and transparent . More importantly, a carbon tax has the added benefit of providing revenue that can be used to cut other taxes. Indeed a revenue-neutral carbon tax may have little or no economic cost." [22].
23. ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas (Father of Rogernomics"; urging the Government and the Emissions Trading Scheme Select Committee to read Centre of Independent Studies Report): "The report states, quite rightly, that an ETS is the wrong approach and advocates a carbon tax – not as the best option but, rather as the best option currently available. At least a carbon tax would result in revenue for the Government, which can be used to reduce company and personal income tax rates. Linking climate change policy to tax cuts will ensure that it does not significantly damage the economy. The report also outlines that agriculture should be excluded. Taxing agriculture does little to facilitate a sustainable low-emission economy. A carbon tax which excluded agriculture would still provide important incentives toward new technology without harming the economy. If the Government feels it must be seen to be addressing climate change, it must do so in a manner that causes the least possible harm to New Zealand’s economy and those who drive it – especially our farmers and other primary producers." [23].
References.
[1]. Dr James Hansen, "Carbon Tax and 100% Dividend vs. Tax and Trade", Committee on Ways & Means, US House of Representatives, February 2009: http://www.cleanenergy-project.de/2009/02/25/carbon-tax-100-dividend-vs-tax-trade/ ; http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20090226_WaysAndMeans.pdf .
[2]. Tricia Holly Davis & Jonathan Leake, New Statesman, 26 March 2009: http://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2009/03/carbon-price-climate-hope-co2 .
[3]. Professor William Nordhaus, "Economic issues in designing a global agreement on global warming", Keynote plenary address for the 10-12 March 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions": http://climatecongress.ku.dk/speakers/professorwilliamnordhaus-plenaryspeaker-11march2009.pdf/ ; for this and other plenary lectures see: http://climatecongress.ku.dk/presentations/congresspresentations/ .
[4]. Oliver Tickel, "Replace Kyoto Protocol with global carbon tax, says Yale economist", Guardian, 12 March 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/12/carbon-tax-should-replace-kyoto-protocol .
[5]. Professor Daniel M. Kammen, "From climate science to solutions: shared agendas in the North and South", Keynote plenary address for the 10-12 March 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions": http://climatecongress.ku.dk/speakers/danielkammen-plenaryspeaker-11march2009.pdf/ ; for this and other plenary lectures see: http://climatecongress.ku.dk/presentations/congresspresentations/ .
[6]. Professor Barry Brook, "CPRS versus carbon tax: Senate Inquiry", 30 March 2009: " http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/03/30/cprs-vs-carbon-tax-senate-inquiry/ .
[7]. Larry Lohmann, summary of book "Carbon Trading. A critical conversation on climate change, privatisation and power" by Larry Lohmann, editor, 2006, published by Dag Hammarskold Foundation, Durban Group for Climate Justice and The Corner House, 2006: http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/summary.shtml?x=544225 .
[8]. Dr Robert J. Shapiro, "The real choice between Cap-and Trade and Carbon-based taxes", Roll Call, 15 January 2009: http://www.rollcall.com/news/31397-1.html .
[9]. Dr Robert J. Shapiro, "Shapiro: economy will force quick action on climate change", Roll Call, 30 March 2009: http://www.rollcall.com/features/Mission-Ahead_2009/ma_energy/33565-1.html .
[10]. Public Citizen statement, "[Obama] Climate change bill must be strengthened", 27 June 2009): http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2913 .
[11]. Stephen Lendman,"Obama’s cap and trade emissions bill – a stealth scheme to license pollution and fraud", MWC News, 8 July 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/31742/26/ .
[12]. Catherine Austin Fitts, "The next really scary bubble", Solari, 1 July 2009: http://solari.com/blog/?p=3360 .
[13]. Greenpeace, " Greenpeace opposes Waxman-Markey. Climate Bill not science based; benefits polluters", 25 June 2009: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/press-center/releases2/greenpeace-opposes-waxman-mark .
[14]. Kenneth Davidson, "A carbon tax is the way to cut emissions", The Age, 19 March 2009: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/a-carbon-tax-is-the-way-to-cut-emissions-20090318-923b.html?page=-1 .
[15]. Guy Pearse, "Quarry vision: coal, climate change & the end of the resources boom", speech, March-April 2009: http://www.guypearse.com/docs/guypearse.com/Pearse%20Quarry%20Vision%20Speech.pdf ; see also Guy Pearse, "Quarry Vision, Coal, Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom", Quarterly Essay 33, 2009.
[16]. Professor Joseph Stiglitz, "Carbon-taxing the rich", UK Guardian Comment is Free, 7 December 2007: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/dec/07/carbontaxingtherich .
[17]. James Hansen, "G-8 failure reflects failure on climate change", The Huffington Post, 9 July 2009: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-james-hansen/g-8-failure-reflects-us-f_b_228597.html .
[18]. Carbon Tax Center, "Why revenue-neutral carbon taxes are essential, what's happening now, and how you can help", 2009: http://www.carbontax.org/ .
[19] Carbon Tax Center, "Carbon Tax supporters", 2009: http://www.carbontax.org/who-supports/ .
[20]. Richard Denniss, "Left and Right agree on Carbon Tax", The Australian, 18 February 2009: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25070069-7583,00.html .
[21]. Paul Taylor, Tax-happy French eye Carbon Tax", Reuters, Commentaries, 22 July 2009: http://blogs.reuters.com/commentaries/2009/07/22/tax-happy-french-eye-carbon-tax/ .
[22]. John Humphreys, "Exploring a Carbon Tax for Australia", Perspectives on Tax reform (14), Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) Monograph 80, 2007, Executive Summary, p ix: http://www.cis.org.au/policy_monographs/pm80.pdf .
[23]. ACT New Zealand, "ETS the wrong approach", 21 July 2009: http://www.act.org.nz/news/ets-the-wrong-approach .
Yarra Valley Climate Action Group
Union Membership
and Energy
On October 17 of 1973 Iranian oil embargo started oil shortages and higher prices. A second oil crisis hit when the Iranian government was overthrown in 1979. Also in 1979 the Three Mile Island nuclear accident ended the anticipated nuclear boom.
In the next five years, 1980 to 1984 unions lost 23.28% of their members. Neither energy nor the unions would ever recover.
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