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by Dkastro92 2566 days ago
The only way to fight climate change is to tax carbon at a global scale, and that is nearly imposible considering the current world politics
2 comments

One way I've heard is to have an import duty on carbon at the border. You have your internal tax on carbon at the source, nationally. If another country has a similar tax, their goods can be imported without extra duties. If they don't, you assess the goods imported and charge the equivalent duty. If the carbon tax rate is different you can pro-rate.

That way, local producers aren't competing against cheap, dirty, manufacturing overseas, and other countries are encouraged to assess their own carbon tax to avoid the import duties.

It's a very fair system that allows countries to onboard one at a time, instead of all together. Unfortunately it would probably be considered illegal under the WTO.

Im sorry if I didin't understand:

"If another country has a similar tax, their goods can be imported without extra duties. If they don't, you assess the goods imported and charge the equivalent duty."

The equivalent duty meaning same as carbon taxers or less? (asuming non carbon taxers have less duty)

You are absolutely right, a current example of that is the Yellow Vest Movement in France:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement

When I first heard about it, I thought it was a movement which is not caring about the environment. That 1 million French are vocally opposed to the environment. It's more complex than that but taxing carbon would lead to protests of the masses.