Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting

Border carbon adjustments imply that high-income countries set taxes on energy-intensive imports that are proportional to the carbon content of these imports, to match their own carbon taxes. This paper considers the impacts of such a policy on exp...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Strand, Jon
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/545441623698058077/Incentivizing-Carbon-Taxation-in-Low-Income-Countries-Tax-Rebating-versus-Carbon-Crediting
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35768
id okr-10986-35768
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-357682021-06-18T05:10:56Z Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting Strand, Jon CARBON TAX BORDER CARBON ADJUSTMENT TAX REBATE CARBON CREDITING CARBON POLICY CARBON TAXATION Border carbon adjustments imply that high-income countries set taxes on energy-intensive imports that are proportional to the carbon content of these imports, to match their own carbon taxes. This paper considers the impacts of such a policy on exporter countries, many of which have no or very low carbon taxes today. The paper first studies a policy whereby the importer allows the exporter’s border tax to be reduced by its own comprehensive carbon tax (“tax rebating”). The analysis finds that the exporter is then incentivized to set its own comprehensive carbon tax at the same rate as the border tax, up to a maximal rate. When the border tax is higher, the exporter instead reduces its carbon tax. Border tax revenues of the high-income country can be returned to incentivize higher carbon taxes in the exporting countries (“carbon crediting”). When tax rebating is not allowed but tax revenues are fully returned, even higher exporter carbon taxes can then be incentivized, possibly exceeding $60 per ton of carbon dioxide in the numerical examples. Border taxation can give rise to export diversion away from border tax-setting countries, which reduces the scope for incentivizing the exporter’s carbon tax. The paper also studies how taxes on oil extraction by oil exporters can be incentivized by oil importing countries, by increasing their oil import prices above world market rates, or more efficiently through support to investments in exporters’ renewable energy capacity. 2021-06-17T16:24:03Z 2021-06-17T16:24:03Z 2021-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/545441623698058077/Incentivizing-Carbon-Taxation-in-Low-Income-Countries-Tax-Rebating-versus-Carbon-Crediting http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35768 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9698 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CARBON TAX
BORDER CARBON ADJUSTMENT
TAX REBATE
CARBON CREDITING
CARBON POLICY
CARBON TAXATION
spellingShingle CARBON TAX
BORDER CARBON ADJUSTMENT
TAX REBATE
CARBON CREDITING
CARBON POLICY
CARBON TAXATION
Strand, Jon
Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9698
description Border carbon adjustments imply that high-income countries set taxes on energy-intensive imports that are proportional to the carbon content of these imports, to match their own carbon taxes. This paper considers the impacts of such a policy on exporter countries, many of which have no or very low carbon taxes today. The paper first studies a policy whereby the importer allows the exporter’s border tax to be reduced by its own comprehensive carbon tax (“tax rebating”). The analysis finds that the exporter is then incentivized to set its own comprehensive carbon tax at the same rate as the border tax, up to a maximal rate. When the border tax is higher, the exporter instead reduces its carbon tax. Border tax revenues of the high-income country can be returned to incentivize higher carbon taxes in the exporting countries (“carbon crediting”). When tax rebating is not allowed but tax revenues are fully returned, even higher exporter carbon taxes can then be incentivized, possibly exceeding $60 per ton of carbon dioxide in the numerical examples. Border taxation can give rise to export diversion away from border tax-setting countries, which reduces the scope for incentivizing the exporter’s carbon tax. The paper also studies how taxes on oil extraction by oil exporters can be incentivized by oil importing countries, by increasing their oil import prices above world market rates, or more efficiently through support to investments in exporters’ renewable energy capacity.
format Working Paper
author Strand, Jon
author_facet Strand, Jon
author_sort Strand, Jon
title Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting
title_short Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting
title_full Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting
title_fullStr Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting
title_full_unstemmed Incentivizing Carbon Taxation in Low-Income Countries : Tax Rebating versus Carbon Crediting
title_sort incentivizing carbon taxation in low-income countries : tax rebating versus carbon crediting
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/545441623698058077/Incentivizing-Carbon-Taxation-in-Low-Income-Countries-Tax-Rebating-versus-Carbon-Crediting
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35768
_version_ 1764483736566497280