New Zealand First to Levy Carbon Tax

[chlamor]

New Zealand first to levy carbon tax

John Vidal
Thursday May 5, 2005
The Guardian

New Zealanders will pay an extra NZ$2.90 (£1.11) a week for electricity, petrol and gas when the country becomes the first in the world to introduce a carbon tax to address global warming.

It is expected to add about 6% to household energy prices and 9% for most businesses but will help the economy in the long run, according to Pete Hodgson, the minister responsible for climate change policy.

Mr Hodgson set the tax yesterday at NZ$11 a metric tonne of carbon emitted. It will come into effect in two years. "If we are going to tackle climate change, we need to start taking environmental costs into account in the economic choices we make," he said.

The tax, planned after New Zealand signed up to the Kyoto protocol, would make polluting energy sources like coal and oil more expensive than cleaner ones like hydro, wind and solar, he added.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1476775,00.html

[Massacure]

1. Someone want to answer one of my questions on this?

The molecule weight of CO2 is 44.01. So does that mean if you release 1000 moles of CO2 there is 44,010 kg. Only 27.289% of CO2 is carbon though. That means there are 12,010 kg of Carbon in that CO2. So if you release 1000 moles of CO2, do you get charged $132.11 for just the carbon or $484.11 for the CO2 as a whole?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Yes.

[DrDebug]

7. You pay for the Carbon. The Oxide is free ...

for now. Hmmm, Air Tax that'll bring in some bucks...

[Bozita]

2. Bushco is gonna flat out love this

Watch as the msm colors NZers as deluded tree-huggers.

[Joebert]

3. Watch as Bush threatens sanctions for their unfair treatment of polluters

[Bozita]

4. Watch as tax is challenged by US -- violation of free trade

Proof will be a tv interview with an imported car dealership owner. He'll state on camera that he's not ordering any more Lincoln Navigators for his car store. He'll blame the tax of course. Nevermind that there's a still-brand-new '02 Navigator sitting on his showroom floor.

[DulceDecorum]

6. Actually the US came up with a very similar idea

The folks at Cantor Fitzgerald came up with this, but they had a lot of help from surprising sectors.

North American policy makers and business leaders have been a critical force in the development of emissions trading as an essential element in climate change policy. Even in the absence of Canadian or United States ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, it is increasingly likely that a regional North American trading regime will play a key role in meeting climate change objectives in both countries. The question that many policymakers and stakeholders must now address is what will such a market look like - specifically.
http://www.carbonsim.com/media.asp

6 December 2004 (Red Herring) - The Kyoto Protocol has spawned a new commodities market that could generate $14 billion over the next three years while cutting pollution dramatically. Environmentalists say it's just a cop-out.
The Kyoto Protocol, the worldwide agreement on global climate change that has been reviled and rejected by the Bush Administration, has spawned an industry that could warm any free-marketer’s heart. Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries can trade the credits they get for reducing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
http://www.pointcarbon.com/article.php?articleID=5580&categoryID=145

http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/greenhouse/greenhouse11/forest.html
http://www.emissionstrading.com/nw101700.htm