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Taxing Emissions, Not Income: How to Moderate the Regional Impact of Federal Environment Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Jotham Peters

    (Simon Fraser University)

  • Chris Bataille

    (Simon Fraser University)

  • Nic Rivers

    (Simon Fraser University)

  • Mark Jaccard

    (Simon Fraser University)

Abstract

Canadian policymakers have the policy tools needed to ameliorate the regional economic harm that taxing GHG emissions can cause. A price on GHG emissions will affect Canadian provinces differently, possibly undermining support for a policy that incurs regional transfers of income. The authors recommend returning to the provinces the revenues collected through auctioned emissions permits, so that they may offer personal and corporate income tax relief, all to moderate the regional impact of GHG carbon policy. Allowing provinces to retain the revenues collected from auctioned emissions permits would achieve a greater degree of regional equity than the other policy options.

Suggested Citation

  • Jotham Peters & Chris Bataille & Nic Rivers & Mark Jaccard, 2010. "Taxing Emissions, Not Income: How to Moderate the Regional Impact of Federal Environment Policy," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 314, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdh:commen:314
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. Christoph Böhringer & Nicholas Rivers & Thomas Rutherford & Randall Wigle, 2015. "Sharing the burden for climate change mitigation in the Canadian federation," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(4), pages 1350-1380, November.
    5. Steve E. Hrudey, 2011. "Safe Drinking Water Policy for Canada - Turning Hindsight into Foresight," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 323, February.
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    8. David A. Dodge & Richard Dion, 2011. "Chronic Healthcare Spending Disease: A Macro Diagnosis and Prognosis," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 327, April.
    9. David J. Blair, 2017. "The framing of international competitiveness in Canada’s climate change policy: trade-off or synergy?," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(6), pages 764-780, August.
    10. Philippe Bergevin & William B.P. Robson, 2011. "The Costs of Inflexible Indexing: Avoiding the Adverse Fiscal Impacts of Lower Inflation," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 322, February.
    11. Finn Poschmann, 2011. "What Governments Should Do in Mortgage Markets," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 318, January.
    12. Yunfa Zhu & Madanmohan Ghosh & Deming Luo & Nick Macaluso & Jacob Rattray, 2018. "Revenue Recycling And Cost Effective Ghg Abatement: An Exploratory Analysis Using A Global Multi-Sector Multi-Region Cge Model," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(01), pages 1-25, February.
    13. Bev Dahlby & Ergete Ferede, 2011. "What Does it Cost Society to Raise a Dollar of Tax Revenue? The Marginal Cost of Public Funds," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 324, March.
    14. David C. Allan & Philippe Bergevin, 2010. "The Canadian ABS Market: Where Do We Go From Here?," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 315, November.
    15. Murphy, Rose & Jaccard, Mark, 2011. "Energy efficiency and the cost of GHG abatement: A comparison of bottom-up and hybrid models for the US," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7146-7155.
    16. David Longworth, 2010. "Warding Off Financial Market Failure: How to Avoid Squeezed Margins and Bad Haircuts," C.D. Howe Institute Backgrounder, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 135, December.
    17. G. Kent Fellows & Trevor Tombe, 2018. "Opening Canada’s North: A Study of Trade Costs in the Territories," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 11(17), June.
    18. Pierre Fortin, 2011. "Staying the Course: Quebec's Fiscal Balance Challenge," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 325, March.
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    20. Bataille, Chris & Melton, Noel, 2017. "Energy efficiency and economic growth: A retrospective CGE analysis for Canada from 2002 to 2012," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 118-130.
    21. Andrew Green & Michael Trebilcock, 2010. "The Eco-Fee Imbroglio: Lessons from Ontario’s Troubled Experiment in Charging for Waste Management," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 316, December.
    22. Rhodes, Ekaterina & Hoyle, Aaron & McPherson, Madeleine & Craig, Kira, 2022. "Understanding climate policy projections: A scoping review of energy-economy models in Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Growth and Innovation; GHG emissions; GHG carbon policy. Canadian federal policy; regional impacts of climate policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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