Analysis On The Policy Package Of Greenhouse Gases Tax

Nowadays, climate change caused by the emission of greenhouse gases is thecommon concern of the international society. The global warming consequencesbrought by the greenhouse effect have given rise to a series of negative impacts ofclimate change on the human beings, even being considered as a threat to the survivalof mankind.In terms of domestic measures against greenhouse gases emission, countries allaround the world have taken actions actively with various forms. Among them,Denmark, Norway and Netherlands have established the rules of carbon tax and thesystem of carbon emissions trading. This text focuses on the research of thesuperiority of the tax approaches among other applicable methods including carbontax and carbon tariff. Specifically, within the policy package discussed herein, thereseldom exists doubt on the rules of carbon tax, because it is a kind of reflection, inessence, upon national autonomy in policy making. However, the EU is trying toexpand its application to other jurisdictions, which inevitably arouses furious debateson the system itself as well as challenges in the framework of international rules.Comparatively speaking, there has formed a stream to question the identification andlegality on the system of carbon tariff by the Chinese government and scholars.Besides the existing discussion about the original background, the rationale for taximposition and the potentially emerging issues under the rules of WTO/GATT arediscussed in this thesis. It also broadens the vision by illustrating the relevance andinteraction between the rules of carbon tariff and the system of carbon tax, and putforward their legitimacy of existing in the background of WTO/GATT.This text can be divided into three parts, namely, the introduction, the body text, andthe closing remarks:The introduction part mainly expressed the research background, the researchcontents, and the research methods of this thesis. Chapter One identifies the concept of "greenhouse gases", and explicits its detailedscopes. Then it summarized the features of the gas emission, including the scarcity ofatmospheric space resources, the limited environment capacity for its emission, thewidespread and boundless discharge, the hysteretic nature and accumulative trend ofits impact, and the difficulties to recover the resulting damaged environment. In thischapter, it listed several approaches aiming at its resolution, and classified them intotrade measures and non-trade measures with respective evaluations.Chapter Two emphatically introduced the carbon-emission trading system. Inconsideration of its presence in many countries and regions around the world, theauthor preferred to make a detailed comparison among carbon-emission tradingsystem, carbon tax and carbon tariff respectively, though the policy package of carbontariff and carbon tax is the main topic of this thesis.Chapter Three borrowed the case of aviation carbon tax imposed by EU, and analyzedthe potential barriers and distrust in expanding the system’s extraterritorial force.Unfortunately, WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism seemed so weak in reaction tomitigating this conflict. The only existing decree for this decision is made by theEuropean Court of Justice, which granted a go ahead and recognized its legal validityunder the framework of several international rules.Chapter Four started from the historical origin and concept, and considered that therelation between the carbon tax and the carbon tariff were of a strong resemblancewith the link up between the domestic law and the international law. In this part, theauthor also summarized several conditions that shall be satisfied to avoid the violationof WTO/GATT rules when contemplating the greenhouse gases tax policies.In the closing remarks, the author considered it might not be the time to appeal theissues of carbon tax or carbon tariff to WTO dispute resolution body. In essence, thecurrent WTO rules take a greater degree of recognition and tolerance indecision-making power of national environmental specifications.