Prevention of Global Warming and Taxation of Energy and Carbon Emissions: On a Recent EC Proposal

The EC Commission has recently put forward the proposai to restrain growth of carbon (dioxide) emissions, as a preventive policy with respect to the risk of global warming. To this effect, a number of policy measures should be enacted, including, prominently, taxation of carbon emissions themselves and of energy use in general (EC Commission [6]). It is not clear (at least not to the present writer), what the concrete developments will be, following this proposai: whether it will be approved, and, in such case, whether modifications will be required, and of what magnitude. For certain, however, the proposai is finding widely differing favour with the governments of the various European countries, and in more than one country the ministries involved (those having responsibilities in matters of environment, energy and taxation) seem to hold significantly differing opinions. At the same time, as could be expected, opposition from industrial interests is firm as well as active, and therefore, plausibly, able to make its influence felt.