National Carbon pricing policies may harm the industries of the countries which impose them if manufacturers decide to relocate to avoid payment, so there is no actual global reduction of emissions. For this reason the principle of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAM), was developed, whereby importers of products or fuels pay the difference between the…
Border Adjustment Tax
On Tuesday 11th January the Centre for Policy Studies produced a report entitled ‘Levelling-Up and Zeroing In’ This report discusses how to create the right business and fiscal environment for levelling up and decarbonising our economy. The regions targeted in the levelling up agenda also happen to be the regions with the highest GHG…
On November 1st the much anticipated debate on the Zero C petition was held in a extremely uncrowded Westminster Hall. Catherine Mckinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Lab) moved the petition, stating that its aim is to impose a single carbon price across all sectors. …… In its simplest terms, the petition calls for the Government…
I have just read an article in the Bloomberg Green newsletter which discusses carbon pricing. Indonesia has announced that it will impose a carbon tax of about $5 per ton of emissions in order to raise revenue as well as meet climate goals. Whilst this is about a tenth of the current EU ETS carbon…

The reality of climate change can no longer be ignored in North America but what is the best policy to combat it?
The reality of climate change has hit hard over the past week with the deadly heatwave in the Pacific NW. The issue of how to combat rising emissions can no longer be kept off the front pages. On Friday 2nd Carbon Brief Daily reported that a frontpage story in the Times stated that “ministers have drawn…
BCAs are currently quite a hot topic. The Sun recently reported that UK Secretary of State for International Trade (Liz Truss) will promote them at the G7 meeting in June. BCAs are also a key component of the EU’s “Green New Deal” and may well be introduced by the EU from the start of 2023.…
The Zero Carbon Campaign (ZCC) is about as different from CCL as two organisations, with similar aims and acronyms, can get. Both organisations campaign for carbon pricing and both organisations have concluded that a carbon-dividend is vital to ensure fairness and effectiveness. But CCL is a grass-roots band of citizens whilst ZCC was set up…
Ambrose Pritchard, writing in The Telegraph criticises the proposed Democrat Green Deal as being a dirigiste policy with an ulterior motive of ‘fuelling’ the trade war with China. He gives a very cogent explanation of the mechanics of carbon fee and dividend and why he prefers this market led method of carbon pricing. He also…
The president-elect of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Frans Timmermans, soon to be the new climate chief, have both spoken in favour of introducing a carbon tax on the EU’s borders in order to level the playing field for European businesses and also to encourage other regions to take stronger action on…
British Steel, an icon of the industrial heritage of the very nation that initiated the Industrial Revolution is on the brink of collapse. Its decline since the 1970s has been precipitous and it is now facing the closure of its last plant in Scunthorpe. Carbon taxes have been squarely blamed for driving up costs that…