Question:

Should we introduce a European tax on carbon in order to fight against global warming?

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Global warming is affecting our environment. This is a worldwide problem. Some argue that a tax on carbon, the main greenhouse gas, would be the most effective measure, and that it should be taken at the level of the EU to be effective. Others argue that this will damage our industries' competitiveness and that national governments should see what's best suited to their national economy.

What do you think?

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  1. Taxes on carbon seem to be a last gasp measure, and they aren't working.  What else is there?

    Carbon trading certainly doesn't as richer nations just trade their points with less well off nations.  It's like Bill Gates stealing the last bowl of millet from a starving African.

    Others are still disputing the existence of global warming.  I learnt this summer that David Bellamy is a critic!

    Industry, especially aviation, is the greatest contributor to global warming.  Those Heathrow protestors did have a point after all in August!  It would be better to sort out our rail network instead of encouraging everyone to fly. But a fly tax would be passed onto passengers...

    I don't have the answer and perhaps it is up to other people to answer this.  I do try my best by having energy saving lightbulbs and not flying, but that's all I can do.

    Please note, all contributors - I answered this without attacking the EU.  Whatever your opinions may be of the EU, answer the question - don't use this as a soapbox to post your Eurosceptic opinions.  Thanks.


  2. How high do you guys want your unemployment rate to go, and stay?  Yeah, keep regulating yourselves out of jobs, but then turn around and continue buying products produced with NO controls from China, India and other Asian nations.  that makes a lot of sense.

    As long as our governments continue to support China in their lies and bs, our earth is damned.

    So, what the hey, when we are standing in soup lines, at least we can rest easy knowing that the nation that works their children in paint booths where they ingest lead based paint with no protection is now the richest on earth and still pumping toxins into the environment on a scale that America and Europe couldn't even begin to touch.

  3. It is funny how people have a blind spot when it comes to money and taxes in particular often make people see red as evidenced by the majority of previous respondents.  It is a case of tax somebody else by all means (imports from high carbon emitting countries although I expect this may not be popular also when the result is increased prices in the shops).  The fact of the matter is that all communities the world over should be mindful of climate change and to me a tax on carbon Europe wide is necessary.  It may just not be politically feasible though.  Unfortunately we are likely to go on not doing as much as we should be doing towards protecting our planet.

  4. no taxes

  5. High taxes on businesses using carbon must be imposed in order to curb global warming.

  6. I think the EU has far too much to say in the running of this Country and the politicians are selling us out again. In other wowrds.  No a thousand times no!

  7. Global warming is a global problem. If EU take action and USA, China and India just carry on as before, where is the sense?

    It would be a great way to damage EU competiveness unless there is joint action.

  8. No. Because the UK would be stung by the EU scrounging lot.

    Stuff Europe.

  9. rubbish.

    Why can't you people see that when the prices go up because of tax, people just pay them!

    -Air taxes in the UK -people just pay them

    -Congestion Charges in London - people just pay to use the roads

    -

  10. yes go ahead we are taxed on tax so wouldn't  make any difference

    maybe UK could bring in a tax for how long you sleep, or for how much oxygen we breath in a day

    but the night time is free for the moment

  11. If GLOBAL WARMINGis going to destroy  our planet why is virtually every country in the world except Britain doing NOTHING about it.The biggest economy in the world the USA have flatly refused to sign up to any agreement put forward as it will damage their economy.The only country I hear banging on about G/W is Britain and the only solution they have is TAX on Joe public.Many years ago virtually every housee in Britain used coal to heat their houses.Virtuall every power station was coal fired.The amount of carbon pumped out was phenominal you could see the effect in every city,town and village in the country.That has all gone.G/W has like many things been pushed forward by politicians as a new tax gathering system.We hear new terms every day to try to convince people they are killing the planet yet millions of years ago the earth went through ice age,hot age,ice age etc how did that happen were they flying about in jumbo jets then and burning millions of tons of coal each year in their coal fired power stations or was there another more simple answer.THE EARTH GOES THROUGH CHANGE NATURALLY EVERY NOW AND THEN AND THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW. In the age of technology we have the capabillity of global meetings via the internet yet the politicians and theorists telling you to cut your CARBON FOOTPRINT are still jetting all over the world on fact finding trips or to meetings to discuss G/W  or to discuss poverty in third world countries or aids in Africa and when they get to their destinations they are chauffered around in great big limos.When are people going to stop looking down the tunnel the politicians have dug and look at the wider picture look what they are not telling you.

  12. I agree that concerted Europe wide action involving all EU member states needs to be taken to combat global warming, but a new tax is not the answer. All that does is shifts the burden of responsibility from governments to individual members of the public.

    What they should be doing is concentrating on cutting carbon emissions by switching to renewable means of energy production wherever possible, and encouraging other countries outside the EU to do the same. Also, considering current urgency, I don't see any other option than using nuclear energy to fill the gap, until such time as the scientific community can come up with a better option.

    Speaking of better options, the EU should also be doing as much as possible to fund and encourage research into geo-engineering means of reducing the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which (in combination with measures to reduce greenhouse gas release) is the only genuine solution by which greenhouse gas induced global warming can be stopped and reversed.

  13. Global warming caused by humans is a load of hot air and just an excuse to extract even more of our hard earned from us.

    You can fool all of the people some of the time,

    Some of the people all of the time,

    But you CANT fool all of the people all of the time.

    This nonsense will soon blow over, then it will be something else.

  14. The tax is a waste of time.  If you are going to tax anything tax the moose in Norway.  The let off more greenhouse gases then we do.

    Humans only add around 1% to the problem with greenhouse gasses.  I would suggest that so far the earth is not out of the ordinary and is only going through normal cycles.  We know that about 1500 to 2000 years ago it was much warmer then it is now I would not fear the warming nor would I fear SUV's.  If the nations of Europe give up more of their sovernty then they will no longer be soverign.  

    I would leave it up to each individual nation.

  15. Factual error in the question - CO2 is NOT the main greenhouse gas, water vapour is, and accounts for 95% of the greenhouse effect. The total CO2 accounts for only 3% of the greenhouse effect, and human activity accounts for only 2.75% of the total CO2.  Hyping up the climate change crisis is just the administration's blame free way of hiking up taxes.

    Edited to add comment:

    No amount of thumbs down can change the fundamental laws of physics. The Catholic Church tried to suppress Copernicus when he said the earth orbits the sun. Such tactics didn't work then and won't work now. The anthropogenic global warming lobby only discredit themselves when that can't even get their basic science right. The asker labels him/her self official. You would think that an official origination would have someone with enough scientific competence not to make such a basic error

  16. A carbon tax would be a reasonably effective measure, but better yet would be a carbon cap and trade system.  This would allow the EU to put a limit on the total greenhouse gases emitted by industry while giving them some leeway to trade for more credits if necessary.

    It's difficult to determine how much a carbon tax would decrease emissions in reality, and clearly it engenders many negative sentiments, but a cap and trade system is much easier to control and likely more popular among the masses.

  17. NO!!!!! For gods sake!! First of all, Europe shouldn't have a right to impose ANY tax on a soveriegn state! Stop trying to drag us into a superstate we don't want!

    Secondly, instead of taxing individuals, who are already taxed to the hilt, why not go after the people who are causing the real problems. Big buisnesses/airlines/governments themselves.

    Force governments to pass through measures on alternative fuels for cars (the technology is there but noone will produce it because they think it isn't cost effective.) Force them to rely more on other forms of energy, nuclear, wind, water, etc. Force the train companies and airlines to update their fleets.

    Why should individuals pay when noone in power is making any real changes? This isn't a green tax, you greedy b******s just want more money out of us!

  18. Alternatives to our current fossil fuels may actually be cheaper in the long run for us (usa).  Our gov't currently subsidizes much of the production and security costs of the fossil fuel industry, thus begetting an artificially low price.  If we were to end those subsidies and enact a carbon tax, this could foster renewable energy prices, through demand, investment and technological advances, to be lower than fossil fuel costs.  

    In addition, as other economies begin to develop (China and India) the demand for fossil fuels will increase and further increase their prices for everyone.  

    An investment in renewable/alternative energy may have an initial higher cost, but in the long run will be economically beneficial to the us.  And there lies the problem; politicians never want to embark on a program whose benfits will be reaped by their successor.  Only if the benefits will help their career, would they be willing to tackle such an issue.

  19. NO!!! This is a matter for individual countries governments!!

    (Whilst they still have a some power that is!!)

    Gordon Brown insists the EU has NOTHING to do with our taxes. The so called "Red Lines" supposedly "protect" us from the corrupt EU........so you think????

    EU-WIDE TAXES

    The European Union is planning to expand its powers over taxation and introduce EU-wide taxes to fund the European Union.Currently the EU is primarily funded by contributions from member-states. However, the anti-democratic European Commission, with the support of the European Parliament is pushing for EU taxes to fund the EU. This will allow it to by-pass national governments and take money directly from the people and businesses of Europe.They also intend to  encourage member-states governments to impose new taxes and make the European Union the beneficiary of those funds.The proposal argues that the EU deserves more finance. Allowing the EU to raise funds independently of member-states will remove any leverage that national democracies have over the anti-democratic and federalist EU institutions in Brussels.An EU tax makes a further mockery of the Governments so-called red-line on taxation. Once the EU Constitution is ratified,the corrupt EU will have full control of our government.....in 2009



    iwantareferendum.com

    proreferendumrally.co.uk

  20. Yes more taxes.  We really need more taxes.  

    And EU taxes too.  Yes, we really need more interference from the EU in our lives.  We really appreciate it.

    *hope you can smell the sarcasm*

    The politicians would end up paying the largest taxes of the lot as the amount of hot air they expel is stupendous.

    What next? A tax on methane? Sales of baked beans would plummet! Maybe the large herbivorous mammals such as cows should be paying tax as they emit more greenhouse gasses than human do.  Call it the Cow-f**t tax!

    I agree that its up to the individual countries to decide what is best for them and for the record I do not entirely beleive that "gobal warming" is a man made phenomenon.  The world has been heating up and cooling down for millions of years.  Naturally.

  21. I think people are overly concerning themselves with taxes and not thinking of sane methods to promote less use of cars and planes.

    We live in the Internet Age, where most anything can be done via the Internet, from basic transfer of information to video conference calling etc. etc. If the available technology was actually used to its full, imagine just how many cars could be taken off the roads in the morning. Reducing the use of cars and planes by sane methodology is the way forward ... merely threatening a tax will only force more to pay more tax, it will not actually help the actually situation as it does nothing to instill sane rational method to reduce carbon use-age.

    Slightly off-question, if tenuously linked ... Nobody external to their own ELECTED government has the right to impose taxes on those who did not vote for them. We have our Government, we vote for them ... until we as the British public are given the chance to vote for or against the EU (and effectively give away our rule/or not to Brussels) then I am of the firm belief that the EU should stop poking their noses into our business.

  22. This is an issue for sovereign nations to decide. The EU is a waste of time and money. The very fact that something is being inflicted upon the British people by foreign bureaucrats in Brussels would probably be enough to make most people hostile to it, whatever it's intrinsic merit.

  23. The European Union has overstepped it's legal bounds. If the EU contuines on the current path it has been then countries will move to regain thier soverginty in all matters and withdraw from the EU.

  24. No.Tax is ineffective.You should educate the public.Set standard for industrial carbon pollution.Technology has to be upgraded for Zero carbon emission in industries.Ban smoking.Major source of carbon emission is industries.If you tax them it is of no use.They will pass on the tax burden to consumers by incresing price.

  25. Why is everything a fight? The USA industries are not competitive, doesn't matter, what. California will lead the way and then other states will follow. Washington is a sack of hot air and complete useless.

  26. Don't be silly. The U.K.  population is already heavily taxed. Don't give Gordon any ideas, he hasn't even started yet. I doubt if the Chancellor of the Exchequer is anything but a front man. Gordon still holds the reins.

  27. NO. If you trust the bunch of criminals who run the EU to do anything, except that it is for their benefit, then I do not. EU KEEP OUT OF MY COUNTRIES AFFAIRS I DO NEED ANY MORE TAX AND THE LAST PEOPLE I WANT TO HAVE ANY TAXATION REVENUE IS BRUSSELS.

  28. Well It's complicated you see........................................ would have to say "NO"

  29. What the h**l has taxing the people, got to do with saving the world?

    Global Warming = scary words invented to make us terrified of what is happening

    Climate change = something that has been happening since day 1 of the worlds creation.  We can't stop it, no matter how much they tax us!

  30. Tax alone will only hurt the poor.  Attitudes need to be changed and alternative energies subsidised.

  31. no taxes.
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