U.S. Exits Paris Climate Accord

Re:U.S. Exits Paris Climate Accord by giantg2 on Wednesday November 04, 2020 @08:17AM (#24988709)

Who imposes the taxes then? The exporting country (China) is unlikely to do it. The importing county is only likely to do it if the government and people support it. The problem is that even with a tax on the import, polluting in a developing nation would likely be cheaper than not polluting anywhere else. Many items do not have options to buy from various countries (economies of scale usually consolidate factories and leave little room for competitors). Not to mention that drastically reducing consumption (your comment about not buying) will cause most economies to fail since we are consumer based.

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Re:U.S. Exits Paris Climate Accord by mantas on Wednesday November 04, 2020 @11:59AM (#24990781)

Make taxes big enough to make pollution too expensive even in cheap countries?

Buying less, but more expensive because of less polluting manufacturing methods is the answer. Economy will still keep going.

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Re:U.S. Exits Paris Climate Accord by giantg2 on Wednesday November 04, 2020 @12:11PM (#24990883)

"Economy will still keep going."

How so? If you are adding crushing taxes, then you're likely to see a downturn in production and consumption, which generally results in a weak or shrinking economy.

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Re:U.S. Exits Paris Climate Accord by mantas on Thursday November 05, 2020 @08:18AM (#24997955)

Polluting taxes will promote spending on less polluting ways to manufacture. Or better quality goods that put out same amount of pollution, but you end up buying them not as frequently.

Let's take a hipothetical sweater as an example.

Now I buy a €20 sweater every 2 years. Let's say pollution tax would be €10. Suddenly it becomes €30 sweater and my €10/year sweater budget becomes €15/year. Instead, I could buy a nice sweater for €40 (+€10 tax) and wear it for 5 years. Now I'm back at original €10/year budget.

Economy wise, most of the chain is now just making nicer stuff that takes more resources. Aside from truck driver. Who is now moving twice as much sweaters. But €10 tax ideally would go to environment-improving projects and some drivers will make a living in those new sectors.

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