Furore over EU carbon tax plans

After the United Nations conference on climate change in Bali last December and in the run-up to its successor in Copenhagen to be held next year, countries are gearing up for the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases after 2012. The US, and President George Bush in particular, is determined to get major developing countries like China, India and Brazil to agree to some caps on their emissions of carbon dioxide. But these nations are equally adamant in refusing to do so.

And now comes a new twist. According to recent reports, the European Union is thinking of a carbon tax on goods imported from major industrial developing countries which have not agreed to cut emissions under the Kyoto regime. The EU regards this measure as a means of ensuring a level playing field by introducing a 'carbon equalisation system'.

Not to be left behind, the US Senate has tabled a bill known after its drafters, Senators Lieberman and Warner, along with other bills seeking to "protect" the US from those who haven't agreed to reduce their carbon emissions. Unlike the blanket EU proposal, the Lieberman-Warner bill is sector-specific, covering six types of energy-intensive imported goods.

Source: http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/may/env-carbontax.htm