Sir, – A carbon tax, as with all indirect taxes, takes no account of ability to pay and therefore invariably hurts the lowest-income households the most. That’s socially regressive. They also give governments a financial interest in citizens polluting.
Every time a tonne of CO2 is released into the atmosphere, it does the same damage regardless of whether it is emitted by a high earner or a low earner – and irrespective of how much tax gets collected by the State.
So why can’t we abolish all “green” taxes and move to a system of annual carbon quotas for individuals or households? That would be a far more egalitarian solution as high earners would have to consume and pollute within the same limits as the poor. – Yours, etc,
RONAN SCANLAN
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Perhaps an EU-wide response to carbon taxes is what is required to overcome national political resistance to increasing carbon taxes.
The issue is global, and the response must be transnational. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,
Dublin 8.