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Leading Canada Liberal Proposes Type of Carbon Tax
Reuters via ENN
OTTAWA – The man often regarded as the front-runner in the race to head Canada’s opposition Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, proposed Monday a modified carbon tax to try to limit climate change.
Ignatieff also said that Canada would be unable to meet its emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The Conservative Party under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which defeated the Liberals in January’s election, also says Canada will not be able to meet its Kyoto obligations.
Unveiling his policy, Ignatieff said federal taxes on transportation fuels should be restructured to be heavier on those like gasoline and diesel that emit more carbon and lighter on cleaner natural gas and propane.
The restructured fuel taxes would be revenue-neutral — ending up with the same tax bite.
“We’re using tax policy to incentivize good behavior,” said Marc Chalifoux, a spokesman for Ignatieff, who is a former Harvard professor.
Carbon taxes have tended to meet stiff opposition both in Canada and the United States, but Ignatieff said his proposal was one of several needed to prevent unacceptable damage from climate change.
(22 Aug 2006)
Interview: Nancy Skinner, U.S. Director, The Climate Group (AUDIO)
Marc Strassman, California Politics Today (etopia media)
According to a press release from the organization itself:
On July 31st The Climate Group convened a ‘Climate and Energy Roundtable’ bringing together 14 CEOs, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to discuss how business and government could accelerate the deployment of clean energy and clean technologies and facilitate the necessary transition to a low carbon economy. With BP as the host, the historic event took place in a large tent cooled using biodiesel fuel at a BP facility at the Port of Long Beach.
In order to learn more about this organization and its efforts, California Politics Today spoke this afternoon with Nancy Skinner, the Director of the U.S. branch of The Climate Group.
You can listen to this audio interview with Nancy Skinner by clicking on the appropriate menu buttons in the syndicatable Brightcove player containing The Sustainable Cities Channel, below [at the original article].
(14 Aug 2006)
Limiting Climate Change: The Neglected Obstacle
Cass R. Sunstein, Washington Post
Sensible people now agree that climate change creates major risks and that the world should be taking significant steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But there is a neglected obstacle to achieving such reductions, and it is the biggest source of the stalemate in international negotiations.
The obstacle stems from the unusual incentives of the United States and China. As the world’s leading contributors to climate change, these are the two countries that would have to bear the lion’s share of the cost of greenhouse gas reductions. At the same time, they are both expected to suffer less than many other nations from climate change — and thus are less motivated to do something about it. And while the international spotlight has rightly been on the behavior of the United States, China will soon present the more serious problem.
In recent years the United States has accounted for about 21 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. China comes in second at about 15 percent. While many countries have stabilized their greenhouse gas levels, emissions from both nations, but especially China, are growing rapidly. Current projections suggest that by 2025 total emissions from the United States will increase by about one-third.
