The Royal Society—the UK’s national academy of science—is calling for the government to implement a carbon tax on all emissions of carbon dioxide from all sectors including industrial, domestic and transport in light of the failure of current policy to reduce CO₂ emissions.

There are some tough political decisions to be made, in this parliament, about how the UK manages its seemingly insatiable appetite for energy at a time when cutting emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide is imperative. This is underlined by the fact that, at the current rate, even the Governments revised assessment of how much carbon dioxide the UK will cut is frankly unrealistic.

—Sir David Wallace, Vice President of the Royal Society

The Royal Society asserts that unless the rate of development of both renewable and energy efficiency measures make up for the loss of capacity resulting from the phasing out of nuclear power, the UK will actually become more reliant on fossil fuels with the result that carbon dioxide emissions will go up rather than down.

A analysis by the Royal Society determined that the impact of a carbon tax on the long-term global GDP would be negligible.

Earlier in May, the government of New Zealand provided more detail on its carbon tax, due to go into effect in 2007. (Earlier post.)

Resources:

• Royal Society response to Defra review of the UK Climate Change Programme

• Economic instruments for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions