Research released by the OECD says that 29 countries have higher ‘effective’ carbon credit prices than Australia.
Taxing Energy Use: A Graphical Analysis provides systematic statistics on energy and carbon taxation across all OECD member countries. It shows that carbon pollution from energy is taxed in every OECD country.
Australia’s carbon price of $23 (EUR 18) comes in near the bottom of the list of 34 countries – below Japan, South Korea and the UK, among many others. Effective taxes on CO2 from energy range from EUR 107 per tonne ($AU 140) in Switzerland to EUR 2.80 ($AU3.70) in Mexico, the OECD estimated. The weighted average of all OECD countries is EUR 27 ($AU 35) per tonne.
Emissions trading schemes are going to start in China and South Korea, adding to existing schemes in the European Union and New Zealand and those that began recently in California and Quebec. South Africa is introducing a carbon tax.
The full OECD report can be found here.
