<
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-the-fairest-way-to-tax-carbon-is-to-make-air-travel-more-expensive-191632>
"Despite the fact that poorer people generally have lower emissions, taxes on
the carbon dioxide (CO₂) our activities emit tend to affect people on low
incomes more than richer people. Having less money means you can ill afford a
switch to an untaxed alternative, like an electric car, or pay for
carbon-saving measures like home insulation. You are also more likely to
struggle to use less of an essential good like petrol or gas for heating, even
if the price goes up.
Carbon taxes on energy that people use in their homes – for heating, cooking or
watching TV – charge consumers for the emissions per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of
electricity, gas or oil used. Economists would say that these kinds of carbon
taxes are regressive, because using energy to heat and power your home is a
necessity and poorer people will use a much higher share of their income to pay
for these things – and the taxes – than richer people.
While total emissions have been falling in several rich countries over the last
few years, emissions from cars and other means of transport are growing. The
rise in air travel emissions has been especially rapid: a roughly sevenfold
increase between 1960 and 2018 globally.
What’s more, the fuels for heating and powering homes or driving cars are
taxed, but the fuel airlines use is exempt due to an international agreement
from 1944.
And although Europeans generally disapprove of carbon taxes, our study has
revealed one type which could prove popular. In the first analysis of its kind
to consider the effect on different income bands, we found that carbon taxes on
air travel – what we describe as luxury emissions – nearly always affect the
rich more."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
