李军论文外文资料.docx

1、李军论文外文资料外文资料On the Views of Carbon Tax in KoreaHeon-Goo Kim UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) has been agreed upon in Rio in 1992. This led to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 by establishing a goal to reduce greenhouse gas among countries. It has been an important issue since

2、 the mid-1980s. The purpose of this agreement is to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels which causes the greenhouse effects. Because of this, global warming has become a serious matter to be solved by m andatory controls to use less fossil fuels. According to this agreement, the developed countri

3、es should reduce the emission of greenhouse gas from 2008 to 2012 by 5.2% average to maintain the emission level of 1990. The greenhouse gas to be reduced in Kyoto Protocol is comprised of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydro fluorocarbon(HFCs), sulfur fluoridation (SF6) a

4、nd perfluorocarbon (PFCs). Out of these six gases, CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas to be controlled because it is more than 80 % of all of the six gas emissions in the world. The carbon tax imposition on fossil fuel usage is regarded as the most efficient scheme to reduce the greenhouse gas

5、es among many many environmentalists. This methodology is a very simplistic way to control greenhouse emission compared with others and does not incur an international conflict. Furthermore, the revenue from this tax can be used as a source of financing environmental improvements. For these reasons,

6、 carbon tax is a highly recommendable. Carbon tax is an excise tax which is levied according to the quantity of carbon dioxide in energy source, while energy tax is also an excise tax levied according to the energy content in energy source. In general, carbon tax is one of the environmental taxes al

7、ong with energy tax. The carbon tax, however, is believed to yield a substitution effect because it brings a negative incentive in using energy source containing carbon dioxide. In the early 1990s, the northern European countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finl and decreased the tax rates includin

8、g personal income tax while they introduced or exp anded environment related taxes to compensate the reduced tax revenue. These countries have something in common to pursue a plan to initiate a carbon tax system as a tax reform. The carbon tax is now being implemented in Denmark, Finl and, Italy, No

9、rway, Netherl ands and Sweden. Characteristics: The carbon tax is considered to be an indirect tax imposed on the use of fossil energy source, which is different from the direct imposition on the CO2 emission. Yoo categorized the energy tax into two aspects, a production tax and an excise tax. The e

10、xcise tax is imposed indirectly on the energy consumed in non energy sectors as the final energy. The excise tax as a scheme to be levied on the consumption of the final energy is a means of reducing the use of petroleum and coals. Cho interprets the carbon tax as an environmental tax leading to dec

11、reases in contamination and waste. and it is as an efficient policy to change the production quality and induce the environmental protection. This policy leads to not only technological improvement but also energy efficient production process. As an energy tax, it induces the polluting producers to

12、switch to the production of environmentally less harmful commodities. Thus, this tax is to give the producers opportunities to develop less harmful substitutes and make the production process less dependent on fossil fuel. As a source of the investment on environment and a means of pollution restric

13、tion, the introduction of the carbon tax is actively debated in Korea. Seol4introduces contents from Welfare Economics written by Pigou that the tax levy on the polluting materials to protect environment is justifiable. Debate: The initial international debate on environment tax including carbon tax

14、 began with OECDs evaluation of various tax schemes concerned with excise tax, value added tax and automobile related taxes. During this process, four countries (Norway, Netherl ands, Sweden and Finl and) focused mainly on carbon tax. In Korea, there is no environment related tax law as a national t

15、ax law but only a transportation tax related to air pollution as a local tax. To reduce the air pollution, people think the best way is to levy the tax according to the emission quantity if it can be measurable. This method, however, is unable to measure accurately and requires a lot of cost related

16、 to administration and information. Thus, the simple method is to levy the tax on the fuel containing pollution material, which can satisfy the PPP(Polluter Pays Principle). This method is represented as a carbon tax law which should be introduced in Korea. In Korea, Kim argues for indirect tax sche

17、me rather than direct method on the basis of PPP(Polluter Pays Principle) to internalize the external cost caused by CO2 emission. Shin also agrees with the introduction of carbon tax to reduce the CO2 emission efficiently, in spite of the debates such as JI(Joint Implementation), CDM(Clean Developm

18、ent Mechanism) and IET(Internal Emission Trading). Even if our countrys production structure has a lower substitutability of other inputs for energy input, the substitutability will increase in the long run. The carbon tax system will stimulate the substitution effect, which will transform our econo

19、mic structure through energy saving production technology.Choi asserts that the lower the carbon tax rate is, the lower the price change effect will be. At the high carbon tax rate, the big fluctuation in price changes by industry occurs. This will yield a large tax revenue to the government. He sug

20、gests to apply a dem and management policy to carbon tax in the industries having big price changes. Shin maintains that the Korean policy in response to UNFCCC should be to reduce the greenhouse gas through the development of energy efficient technology. This policy will be effective when it is imp

21、lemented with market oriented strategies under carbon tax system. Chung and Rhee expect that the carbon tax will increase the energy price which will affect the change in production cost structure. The increase in production cost will increase in prices of commodities of relatively energy intensive

22、using industries, which will change the whole economic structure. This change in domestic prices will ultimately decrease the countrys competitiveness in the international market. The price increase due to the implementation of carbon tax is from our countrys price-inelastic energy dem and. In other

23、 words, there is a low substitutability of fossil fuel input for another kind of input emitting less CO2. The far reaching effect from the energy price increase induces burdens to the industries using fossil fuel as raw materials and intermediate inputs. Especially the sectors such as primary metal

24、products, cement, warehouse, chemical products and petroleum products are showing a disbenefit, cost increase relatively to other sectors using less fossil fuel input. These sectors having disbenefit, however, will also affect negatively other sectors through overall price increases in the end. In c

25、ase of adoption of carbon tax in the developed countries, our countrys export to those countries will be negatively affected. The developed countries will set up a st andard level of energy efficiency in the production process. These st andards as a non-tariff barrier will be asked to other countrie

26、s which want to export to those developed countries. The developed countries introduction of it is also expected to accompany the tariff on the product from the countries which do not introduce it. This will hamper the price competitiveness of our commodities in the market of those countries. The se

27、ctors or countries that are less affected by carbon tax can be benefited. For example, the R and D to develop the technology for the avoidance of carbon tax can create an excessive benefit to other producers and sectors. This benefit also transfers to the producers in the developing countries who wa

28、nt to reduce cost by accessing to the technology less harmful to the environment. About the matter of introduction of carbon tax, Cho explains negative or positive aspects that may arise. The negative opinion is of the possibility of transferring the carbon tax burden from producers to consumers. Th

29、is happens when the dem and for the product is price inelastic as price increases. This price increase implies that a part of the environmental tax burden to producers is transferred to the consumers who cannot find a substitute product. The dem and decrease due to the price increase may lead to pro

30、duction decrease that may yield wage decrease and unemployment. The positive aspect is the possibility of enhancing the competitiveness of firms or industries caused by investing in research and development projects. The production process innovation leading to increasing return to scale may disconn

31、ect the negative tie between economic growth and environment. The innovation for clean products and production facilities may accompany the environmental protection with firms competitiveness enhancement. As a result, the environmental regulations may lead to innovation more than the offsetting leve

32、l of cost increase. In the long run, the initial impact on the energy price increase can be an economic benefit. For this, Cho (2004) makes an example of Italys increasing export share of small vehicles equipped with technology developed in response to high tax on fossil fuel.The carbon tax system i

33、s the outcome of finding a measure positively to resolve the environmental problems without being controlled under the environmental policy system of the past. This system is believed to be convenient to levy, increase the tax evenue and reduce the omission of CO2. This system is effective in about 6 European countries, but other EU count