President Obama’s speech on Friday at MIT, which some hoped would urge Congress to move ahead with climate change legislation, instead focused largely on green jobs and economic stimulus.
And indeed, with last week’s Pew survey showing levels of belief in the seriousness of climate change have fallen pretty sharply in the past 18 months, and that cap and trade seems to barely register on the public psyche right now, why would he want to talk about all that?
Interestingly, however the Pew survey found that a majority of Americans believe the US should sign up to an international agreement on climate change, and half of those polled believed emissions should be restricted, even if it made energy bills go up.
It’s enough to make us wonder whether cap and trade has been tainted by association with nasty financial instruments, the somewhat-maligned ‘giveaways to polluters’, or simply by its own complexity.
Received wisdom is that a carbon tax is political death, but such taxes are going ahead in several European countries – and perhaps even in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the UK population is apparently sanguine about green taxes. This is from the Green Fiscal Commission (GFC), which is publishing a report recommending £150bn worth of green taxes, including higher duties on petrol. Its director Paul Ekins, professor of energy and environment policy at University College London, says:
“This work suggests that it is possible to substantially reduce emissions and create jobs, which has to be an important message to policy-makers at a time of rising unemployment. We know that a tax shift can be attractive to people, because it is effectively taxing a social evil – pollution – and people are much more supportive of taxes levied in this way.”
Polling ahead of the report showed “clear public support” for green taxation, said the Commission. The UK’s 2020 greenhouse gas targets could be met by imposing green taxes with a broadly neutral economic impact, and investing a small proportion of the proceeds in energy efficient homes, cars and renewable energy schemes would reduce emissions further at virtually no cost, said the report.
The GFC’s proposal, however, would represent a ‘shift’ rather than a new set of taxes, and would be offset by reductions in other taxes, rebates for low-income households, and so on. And the commission argues it is not only a cost-effective way to reduce emissions, but will create 455,000 new jobs between now and 2020, as well meeting the UK’s ambitious targets to reduce emissions by 30 per cent.
But it remains to be seen just how much opposition could be mustered to the GFC’s recommendations by industry leaders and lobby groups. As the Guardian notes, the Freight Transport Association has gone on the offensive, and Total boss Christophe de Margerie last week made very clear he would not accept a carbon tax quietly, saying it would jeopardise future investment in North Sea oil production.
Related links:
An EU-wide carbon tax? (FT Energy Source, 24/09/09)
Cap and trade versus everything else (FT Energy Source, 12/06/09)
