Earth Equity News

South Korea Considers Carbon Tax. By Kim Yoon-mi , Korea Herald, February 17, 2010. "The South Korean government has recently asked the state-run think tank Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF) to study whether to introduce a carbon tax, how to apply it to the industry and how the scheme would affect the overall taxation system. Kim Seung-rae, a research fellow at the KIPF, said in a report that imposing a tax on carbon emissions can not only minimize carbon cut costs and encourage companies to advance their technologies to further reduce carbon emissions, but also help the government increase tax revenue. 'To implement a carbon tax realistically, there are many challenges to address, like setting a detailed tax rate, linking it with the emissions trading scheme, tackling the income redistribution issue and reaching a political agreement,' Kim said. 'Despite the challenges, advanced nations are paying higher attention on a carbon tax rather than sticking to existing measures of direct regulation.' Kim calculated that, assuming Korea had imposed a carbon tax on nine energy sources including fuel and gas in 2007, the government would have collected 9.1 trillion won ($7.9 billion) tax revenue that year, on the condition that the tax rate was 31,828 won (25 euros) per ton of CO2 as set by independent U.K. greenhouse gas tracker Cambridge Econometrics."