Poll: Majority Would Support Energy Tax to Address Global Warming

A new poll conducted for the BBC World Service indicates that people might be willing to make personal changes, including paying more taxes on energy, in order to prevent further global warming. The results indicate that the majority of people that live in both countries that produce the most carbon emissions, China and the United States, would be willing to pay more for energy.

"While few citizens welcome higher taxes, the poll suggests that national leaders could succeed in introducing a carbon tax on energy. The key requirement is that their citizens trust that the resulting tax revenues will be invested in addressing climate change by increasing energy efficiency and developing cleaner fuels," said Doug Miller, GlobeScan President in a press release detailing the results of the poll.

The poll, conducted by the polling firm GlobeScan and Program on International Policy Attitudes, which took the opinions of 22,000 people in 21 different countries, indicated that 83 percent of the people polled thought that people in their country should change lifestyle and behavioral habits to prevent further global warming.

The majority of the people polled in fourteen out of twenty one countries thought that energy costs would have to be raised to increase the motivation for people to conserve. Half of the people polled thought that an increase in taxes would be a good way to prevent unnecessary carbon emissions.

However, the greatest majority of people polled (three out of four) only approved of taxing energy if the resulting revenue was applied towards developing cleaner energy sources. The idea of a tax revenue devoted towards developing clean energy sources met with majority approval in all countries polled.

While global warming remains a hot button topic for many politicians, climate change appears to be a topic of increasing concern among developed nations. Even in China and the United States, the two countries responsible for the most carbon dioxide emissions, agreed that taxation may be the best way to prevent global warming. The majority of Chinese living in the cities (four out of five) were ready to change their lifestyles, pay more taxes on coal and oil, and raise energy costs to prevent global warming.

"People around the world recognize that climate change requires that people change their behavior. And that to provide incentives for those changes there will need to be an increase in the cost of energy that contributes to climate change," said the director of Program on International Policy Attitudes, Steven Kull, in a press release.

Source:

Program on International Policy Attitudes, "Most Would Pay Higher Energy Bills to Address Climate Change Says Global Poll" PRNewswire

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