Economist William Nordhaus said putting a price on pollution was the best way to reduce climate change. Then came the fossil fuel lobby and the anti-tax movement.

Europeans have taken to the streets to protest rising living and energy costs while fossil fuel companies continue to make billions in profits from the ongoing energy market turmoil.

Overseas markets are tightening their climate requirements on Taiwanese exporters, and the island has already introduced a carbon fee system.

The Coalition has been blaming federal government spending for rising inflation and another impending rate rise for Melbourne Cup Day, but the figures tell a different story.

According to a November 2 report by Radio Taiwan International, President Lai Ching-te said the government is preparing a carbon emissions trading scheme together with a Taiwanese counterpart to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) operated by the European Union. The aim, he explained, is to help domestic companies comply with global climate standards. Overseas markets are tightening their climate requirements on Taiwanese exporters, and the island has already introduced a carbon fee system. To prevent carbon leakage, the EU's CBAM obliges importers of certain carbon-heavy goods to account for the emissions embedded in them. Lai said the government hopes businesses will treat the 2050 net-zero transition, and the pressure that comes with it, as a chance to boost their competitiveness. Lai made the remarks to representatives of companies honoured at the eighth National Enterprise Environmental Protection Awards. "With the carbon fee system now officially in place, we are carefully planning a Taiwan version of CBAM and a carbon emissions trading system. We hope to help industries connect with international standards and turn the pressure of transition into a driving force for competitiveness," said Lai, Radio Taiwan International. According to Lai, the winning companies cut electricity consumption by more than 1.6bn kilowatt-hours last year and lifted their use of renewable energy by 131%. He pointed to Yamaha Motor Taiwan, which moved to reusable steel packaging for its exports and works with 85 suppliers. He also cited E.SUN Bank and Chang Hwa Bank, which run carbon-pricing and carbon-assessment programmes aimed at smaller firms. Chi Mei Medical Center and Far Eastern SOGO's Tianmu store were among the winners recognised for using artificial intelligence to cut energy use. Ecotour Taiwan combined low-carbon tourism with conservation work and local development. Lai said the National Climate Change Committee would keep backing companies and help the island's supply chains shift towards greener practices. He called on businesses to pass on what they had learned and turn sustainability into a long-term advantage for future generations.

The economic case for the consumer carbon tax is seductive in its simplicity. Consumers and households, faced with a graduated price signal and a roadmap that provides certainty, will gradually shift towards cleaner, less carbon-intensive alternatives. That through a simple price intervention, the invisible hand of the market will gradually make the unsustainable sustainable. It is understandable why the green movement is attached to it. But successful political movements need to be agile, and the carbon tax was designed for an economic and geopolitical world that no longer exists. The gentle ramp-up scenario underpinning carbon tax policy has been obliterated. Most modelling and projections assumed benign and stable energy price environments. Instead, the Government has been forced to cut diesel excise by 32c per litre in response to unprecedented price increases, while we argue about adding 2c through carbon tax. We don’t need to manufacture another artificial signal right now — households have already been battered by a signal far more powerful than the political system could conjure up. If today's extraordinary prices have not produced a dramatic collapse in fossil-fuel consumption, what additional behavioural change do we realistically expect from another incremental increase now? This is not to argue...

September 9, 2026 - World Economy will Crash: If you didn’t get the memo, I’m not a Mark Carney superfan, and I never support any politician of any stripe.

Climate change and energy experts have their say on the reasons for the budget U-turn – and whether they will work

The Government has paused a scheduled increase of Carbon Tax on petrol and diesel, which had been due to rise this month, but there will be two rises next year.

Er is al enige tijd discussie over de carbontax, een rekenmodel dat de overheid gebruikt om uit rekenen hoeveel elektrische auto's er verkocht worden als de Staat elektrisch rijden stimuleert met bela...

📣 Spread the word about climate change. Share this newsletter with friends! Welcome to Friday. President Donald Trump has made overturning climate policy a centerpiece of his second term. This week, his administration announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will no longer limit climate pollution from power plants, the latest reversal of policies established under former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Trump’s “broad rollbacks of federal greenhouse gas rules since January 2025 have altered the trajectory of US energy use and helped set back cuts to planet-warming pollution by about a decade,” Bloomberg reported (paywall) this week. Yet along the way, Trump’s policies have also unintentionally contributed to a Mirror Universe version of carbon pricing. Carbon pricing is a policy idea long promoted by environmental economists and some green groups. What is carbon pricing? The idea behind carbon pricing is that polluters should pay for the costs of damage to society and the environment. One of several ways to accomplish that goal is a carbon tax: a tax that governments impose on carbon pollution. With a carbon tax in place, “Everyone will suddenly have an economic incentive to avoid emitting greenhouse gases,” Alex Flint, executive director for the conservative...

Firms manage $7.3tn in assets and could afford to transition away from fossil fuels yet invest in natural gas and coal-fired plants to power datacenters

The episode examines why fuel is so expensive in Portugal, noting that about 47 cents of every euro spent on petrol and around 42 cents on diesel goes to the state through stacked taxes.  Using AI research, it breaks down the main components: ISP fuel duty, a carbon tax added on top, and 23% VAT applied to the full price (effectively “tax on tax”).  A real-world example estimates that filling a 50-liter petrol tank at €2.075/L costs €103.75, with roughly €49 going to taxation, and an average driver could pay about €886 per year in fuel tax alone.  The discussion compares Portugal’s fuel-tax burden to other EU countries, questions policy choices, and considers alternatives like electric cars, driving less, public transport, walking, cycling, and living closer to work. 00:00 Fuel Tax Shock 01:29 Breaking Down Petrol Costs 03:17 Diesel Taxes and Real Costs 05:28 Portugal vs EU Prices 06:27 EVs Not a Simple Fix 08:11 Practical Alternatives to Driving 09:54 15 Minute City Debate 11:10 Switching to AI News

In a major breakthrough, the U.K. has recognised India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme as a qualifying criterion for pricing relief under its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a move that would reduce the tax burden on domestic exporters, an official said on Monday (September 7, 2026). In a communication addressed to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, the U.K.'s HM Treasury confirmed that the CCTS has been included in the U.K.'s published indicative list of overseas carbon pricing schemes assessed as qualifying criteria under a provision of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (Calculation of CBAM Rate and Determination of Carbon Price Relief) Regulations 2026, the official said. The move is important as the Commerce Ministry was pursuing the matter with the U.K. for long. The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) has been notified by India with the objective of reducing, removing, or avoiding greenhouse gas emissions from the Indian economy by pricing such emissions through the trading of Carbon Credit Certificates. The financial support for implementation of the CCTS would be met by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency from fees and charges collected from entities under the scheme and its own resources. The official said the U.K. government...