{"id":264809,"date":"2023-10-17T19:19:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T13:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=264809"},"modified":"2023-10-17T19:19:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T13:49:39","slug":"carbon-pricing-challenges-indias-piecemeal-approach-to-carbon-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/carbon-pricing-challenges-indias-piecemeal-approach-to-carbon-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon pricing challenges- India&#8217;s piecemeal approach to carbon pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> The post is based on the article \u201c<strong>Carbon pricing challenges- India&#8217;s piecemeal approach to carbon pricing<\/strong>, driven by emerging trade barriers, is not a long-term strategy\u201d published in <strong>\u201cBusiness standard\u201d<\/strong> on 17th October 2023.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus:<\/strong> GS3- Environment- carbon emission<\/p>\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong> The article discusses market-based solutions for reducing carbon emissions, like carbon pricing and cap-and-trade systems. It highlights examples from Europe, China, and the US. It argues against solely using the &#8220;social cost of carbon&#8221; for decisions. It then examines India&#8217;s implicit carbon taxes from coal and petroleum and suggests India adopt a national carbon pricing system due to international trade pressures and to promote cleaner technology.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are market-based solutions to carbon mitigation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong> Strategies using market forces to incentivize the reduction of carbon emissions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Global Spread:<\/strong> Implemented or planned in 73 jurisdictions, they cover 23% of global greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forms:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Carbon Pricing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Charges levied on carbon emissions without a set target.<\/p>\n<p>Sweden&#8217;s model: Launched a carbon price in 1991 for designated emitters (40% of emissions). The carbon price is now about $100 per tonne, which led to a 25% emission reduction since its inception.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cap-and-Trade (CaT):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An approach where a target emission level is specified.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s approach: Introduced CaT in eight regions in 2021. The emerging carbon price from emissions trade in China is $8 per tonne of CO2e.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Social Cost of Carbon (SCC):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The US Environmental Protection Agency&#8217;s method to estimate the societal impact of carbon.<\/p>\n<p>US&#8217;s evolution: $43\/tonne (Obama era), dropped to $3-5\/tonne (Trump era considering only US impacts), and a recent suggestion of $190\/tonne.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Implicit Carbon Pricing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India&#8217;s indirect method by taxing fuels.<\/p>\n<p>Coal taxation in 2019-20 translates to an implicit carbon tax of $5 per tonne of CO2e. Taxes on petroleum products and natural gas result in a higher rate of $87 per tonne of CO2e, driven primarily for revenue rather than emission reduction.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is India&#8217;s approach to carbon emissions?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>India&#8217;s Approach to Carbon Emissions:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coal Cess and GST:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India has a cess and Goods and Services Tax (GST) on coal.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019-20, it collected around 2600 billion from this. Considering the CO2 emissions from coal consumption in that year (1,678 million tonnes), this translates to an implicit carbon tax of $5 per tonne of CO2e.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Taxation of Petroleum Products and Natural Gas:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2019, these products resulted in about 800 million tonnes of CO2 emissions and yielded tax revenue of \u20ac4.9 trillion. This implies an implicit carbon price of $87 per tonne of CO2e.<\/p>\n<p>This high taxation on petroleum products is mainly for revenue purposes and not explicitly for reducing emissions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Facing Global Pressure:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India may soon have to consider carbon pricing options due to increasing global pressure, especially as Europe implements a Carbon Adjustment Border Mechanism (CABM) which would levy duties on imports from countries not accounting for carbon emissions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Potential Carbon Pricing Approaches:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India is contemplating introducing carbon pricing either directly or through a CaT system, focusing on sectors like electricity generation, steel, and cement production. The primary challenge is the political complexity due to taxation by both Union and state governments.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What should India do next?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Consider Carbon Pricing:<\/strong> Due to global pressure and potential carbon emission-linked trade barriers from Europe, India needs to think about carbon pricing solutions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Address Trade Barriers:<\/strong> With Europe implementing a Carbon Adjustment Border Mechanism (CABM), India is contemplating a directed export tax to counterbalance the CABM.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sectoral Carbon-Oriented CaT Mechanism:<\/strong> India should think about starting a sectoral carbon-oriented CaT mechanism, focusing on sectors like electricity generation, steel, and cement production, instead of geographical areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Develop a National System:<\/strong> It&#8217;s essential to create a national system that not only reduces carbon emissions but also boosts R&amp;D in relevant technology areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reconsider Taxation Sources:<\/strong> Introducing carbon pricing might need a partial shift in sources of budgetary finance from coal cess and GST to carbon pricing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The post is based on the article \u201cCarbon pricing challenges- India&#8217;s piecemeal approach to carbon pricing, driven by emerging trade barriers, is not a long-term strategy\u201d published in \u201cBusiness standard\u201d on 17th October 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Environment- carbon emission News: The article discusses market-based solutions for reducing carbon emissions, like carbon pricing and cap-and-trade&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/carbon-pricing-challenges-indias-piecemeal-approach-to-carbon-pricing\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Carbon pricing challenges- India&#8217;s piecemeal approach to carbon pricing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,59,216],"class_list":["post-264809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-environment","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":10,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698332296},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}