To many people, this rapid increase in emissions from China and the rest of the developing world makes it seem that we might as well give up on our efforts to reduce emissions in the West, admit defeat, live for today and let our children starve in the future.
Instead of admitting defeat, we in the West should take radical action that will be copied in the rest of the world. Europe should base the entire tax system at local, national and federal level on a massive carbon tax replacing income tax, employment taxes and even sales tax. This would change our decision-making and cause technological innovation at the high speed that is necessary.
If Europe or any other region taxed carbon, it would be entitled to insist that goods imported from any nation that did not have the same taxes would need to be accompanied by a verifiable carbon audit showing the carbon cost. Import taxes would be levied accordingly. Alternatively, goods would be categorised according to average energy input for tax purposes. This system would mean that the tax levied on carbon would be collected by the importing country rather than by the producing country so that the producing country would be encouraged to tax carbon themselves.
I plan to write a post that explores carbon tax more fully. In the meantime, let me know if you agree with the idea.
