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by sokoloff 2580 days ago
You can't base duties just on emissions taxes paid. (Setting aside practical record-keeping concerns,) If factory A pays no emissions taxes paid because they're based in a country without carbon taxes and factory B pays no emissions taxes because they're in a country with no carbon taxes but also are using carbon-free energy sources and factory C is located in a country with carbon taxes and pays those taxes, should we charge B the same as A in duties? Should A pay more than C by the exact amount of the carbon taxes? If C implements an energy efficiency program to cut its consumption in half, should A now pay less? How could B "prove it"? How do we control such that A can't represent itself as B?

At some point, these other countries are sovereign entities, and it's going to be difficult to dig into the on-the-ground facts at each factory and step along the supply chain to determine emissions.
2 comments
amelius 2580 days ago
We can measure CO2 emissions from space:

https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/99/graphic-measur...

If company X in country Y wants to trade with the US, they could require that country Y provides full transparency in carbon emissions, where the measurements from space could be used as a checksum.

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sokoloff 2580 days ago
Neat tech. (For those curious, it seems like we are capable to measure CO2 increase or decrease to an uncertainty of approximately 0.3% [of CO2, meaning ~1ppm overall]. That's impressive.)

Even if the last "embargo uncooperative countries" strategy were possible, I think you'd find that all of their domestic production would be carbon-intensive and their exports would all be "carbon neutral".

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amelius 2580 days ago
Well, we could require that countries (trade partners) pay tax on their emissions as opposed to companies. How these countries tax their companies internally could be an internal affair entirely. And this also solves the bookkeeping at the border.
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adrianN 2579 days ago
Well, if the countries don't want to implement a carbon tax of their own, products from their country will be more expensive, regardless of how carbon neutral they are. That should put pressure on them to get with the times and implement the tax.
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