Implementing Carbon Tariffs: A Fool's Errand?

Michael Moore

Working Papers from The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy

Abstract: Some governments are considering taxes on imports based on carbon content from countries that have not introduced climate change policies. Such carbon border taxes appeal to domestic industries facing higher charges for their own carbon emissions. This research demonstrates that there are enormous practical difficulties surrounding such plans. Various policies are evaluated according to World Trade Organization compliance, administrative plausibility, help in meeting environmental goals, and ability to deal with domestic pressures. The steel industry is used as a case study in this analysis. All considered policies arguably fail to meet at least one of these constraints, bringing into question the plausibility that a carbon border tax can be practical policy.

Keywords: carbon tariffs; climate change; environmental policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F18 H23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Implementing Carbon Tariffs: A Fool’s Errand? (2011)
Working Paper: Implementing carbon tariffs: a fool's errand ? (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2010-02

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