Research On International Carbon Tax System

The environment is the material source of human’s survival and development. Man is a product of the environment, which can not be separated from the natural environment for their survival. As the Declaration on the Human Environment says:"Man is both creature and moulder of his environment, which gives him physical sustenance and affords him the opportunity for intellectual, moral, social and spiritual growth". In the iar ancient times, due to the low level of social productive forces, poor science and technology, Man is awed of and worship blindly the nature; in the European dark ages, Christian theocracy is higher than all, and suppresses the Man’s desire for material wealth; since the enlightenment campaign, modernity promotes the formation of the nation-states, the establishment of an efficient social organization mechanism, creates the concept of freedom, democracy, equality, justice, and liberates the human from the medieval fetters cool and the prison. However, it does not really realize the full emancipation and free development of mankind, but make Man get into unprecedented danger. The dualistic theory of subject and object emerging from modernity leads to the absence of the human’s spirit and the worship of mechanical technology, and cultivates the attitude of the human to conquer the natural. Driven by the logic of capital, human greedy aspires to material wealth, and takes a predatory model of economic development, such as large-scale deforestation, reclamation, mining, the discharge of various industrial wastes, which makes the environmental issues worsen progressively. In the20th century, science and technology advancing by leaps and bounds, the world’s economy growing rapidly, Man conquers the nature around the world. As a result, shocking public events have occurred one after another in1930’s--1950’s, and extended gradually from localized, regional to global, which had a discernible impact on natural ecosystems, and posed a serious challenge to the survival and development of the mankind. Thus, we have entered the era of the "global risk society" called by German sociologist Beck.As the earth’s ecological environment is directly related to the fate of Man, environmental problems have become the common concerned issue of the mankind. Due to the the long-term, comprehensive and irreversible characteristics of the environment, it is determined that any country can not be immune to environmental problems, and any country’s single action can not fundamentally solve the environmental problems absolutely. In order to save ourselves and our future generations, live healthy, Man should be imperative to take joint action, carry out extensive cooperation, and establish and abide by a common legal system in order to protect our unique "global village". Since the1970’s, Man has gradually reached a consensus on this issue. After Declaration on the Human Environment reached on Stockholm Conference in1972, the international community has actively explored the international mechanism to build global environmental governance. Today, the international community has established the dominated models of Kyoto protocol, WTO and Copenhagen to cope with global environmental problems. However, the model of Kyoto protocol and WTO established on the basis of the market is built on the interests of the developed countries and not conducive to the developing countries. Copenhagen model based on self-commitment, due to the lack of the legal binding force, often depends on conscious action of everyone, and is shelved due to domestic economic and political situation of some countries. Therefore, the three models are either lack of justice, or lack of effectiveness, only international carbon tax model which absorbs their merits and makes up their shortcomings should be one of the best ways to deal with the global environmental crisis."Justice" is always the highest form of value of the good law. This dissertation analyses the theory of traditional environmental justice, and pointes out that the global environmental liability is justiciable basis of international carbon tax system. On this basis, we demonstrate legitimacy and legality of international carbon tax system from the perspective of jurisprudence, economics, tax law, international relations etc. and explore the construction of the international carbon tax system, so as to achieve the goal of protecting the global environment. Specifically, in this dissertation, except the introduction and conclusion, it is divided into five chapters:The first chapter points out that since the industrial revolution, under the theory of "Man is the master of the world", Man takes full use of scientific and technological means to transform natural. As a result, Man gets brilliant achievements, but at the same time has great impact on environment, which results in ecological crisis. This dissertation applies the theory of Beck’s risk society, and reflects on modernity, in order to demonstrate the necessity and urgency that Man should take actions to govern the environmental problems in the global risk society. At the same time, this dissertation also gives deep reflection and analysis of today’s international environment governance model, and deems that the currently major mode of Kyoto Protocol, WTO and Copenhagen is either lack of justice, or lack of effectiveness. Therefore, only international carbon tax will be one of the best modes to cope with global environmental problems.The second chapter elaborates the evolution of relationships between Man and nature, and gives a systematic analysis on today’s theory of global environmental justice. On this basis, this dissertation deems that global environmental responsibility is the root of justice of mankind to protect the environment. Moreover, this dissertation takes use of the theory of global environmental responsibility to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of international carbon tax system.The third chapter defines firstly the connotation and feature of international carbon tax, then demonstrates the legitimacy of the theoretical cornerstone of the international carbon tax system from the perspective of economics, ethics, environmental law, tax law, etc.; Meanwhile, it explores to design the major elements of international carbon tax, such as subject of tax, object of tax, tax rates, tax bases and so on. Furthermore, basing on the concept of global justice and fairness, the target of efficiency and convenience, the protection of necessarily binding effects, by drawing on the useful experience of the IMF, International Atomic Energy Agency, WTO and other international organizations, this dissertation is to explore the establishment of a globally harmonized international carbon tax organization.The fourth chapter defines the connotation of the running mechanism of international carbon tax system, based on which establishes the principles of compulsory priority, specific performance, open and transparent for the running of international carbon tax system. At the same time, basing on the basic principles of the running mechanism of international carbon tax, this dissertation constructs the operating mechanism of international carbon tax system from the perspective of the mechanism of decision-making, protection and dispute settlement..The fifth chapter mainly discusses China’s international position and responsibility under the establishment of the international carbon tax system in the near future. The carbon tax system will become the effective mode to deal with environmental problems in China. Based on the analysis of the destruction of Chinese ecological environment, this dissertation points out that China should be timely to introduce a carbon tax system, and do researches on how to construct China’s carbon tax system. In addition, this dissertation also discusses the issues on how to actively participate in the negotiations of climate charge, construct natural philosophy with Chinese characteristics, and play leading roles in the process of making rules of international carbon tax system.