Recently the World Bank said that although “the number of carbon pricing schemes worldwide has almost doubled since 2012,” the prices are usually too low to prevent global warming. In most cases, the price was less than $10 per ton of emissions, but prices vary widely among programs.
“Unanimous acceptance of such an estimated number is nearly impossible,” notes RFF’s Joel Darmstadter, referring to the social cost of carbon (SCC), which is an estimate of the global costs of carbon emissions damages and frequently serves as the basis for calculating a carbon tax. In a related blog post, he writes: “The goal of universal—or at least widespread—participation has itself proven illusory . . . though some 10 countries have adopted token carbon taxes, with the typical share of a country’s carbon emissions to which the tax would apply far below 50 percent. So, the carbon tax approach remains dormant; broadening its appeal remains work in progress.”
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