Carbon Tax and Emissions Trading
Some of the issues surrounding carbon tax are introduced in a short factsheet from the International Transport Worker’s Federation (ITF, n.d.). Carbon taxes are described as a ‘market solution’ intended to reduce CO2 emissions by making it more expensive to produce them. An example of how this might work is that fossil fuel companies would be taxed on the basis of their emissions, and would then pass the cost on to their customers, resulting in reduced consumption of the goods and services the companies provide. The main argument advanced against carbon tax is that the poor would suffer most from price increases, for example in the cost of heating, while the behaviour of wealthier people might well be unaffected; the tax is thus considered regressive. A fairer way to reduce CO2 emissions would be through government actions such as a program of house insulation. The article concludes that despite the un