Incentives to pollute

The real problem is that electricity produced in Australia from fossil fuel such as coal is subsidised to the tune of an astounding $8.9 billion, so it is far too cheap. If these subsidies were removed, and a carbon tax applied to polluting energy producers, then renewable energy would successfully compete and the free market would steer us in the right direction of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.^[1]

Suggested project

Research these incentives in other countries (perhaps starting with references given in Riedy's working paper^[1]. Consider other sides of the argument.^{[expansion needed]}
Investigate the extent of similar market distortions that are bad both from a neo-classical economics perspective, and from green and left-wing perspectives.^{[expansion needed]}

Interwiki links

Wikipedia:Perverse incentive - an incentive that has the opposite effect of that intended. (Note that "Incentives to pollute" described on this page may not fall into this category, as the intention was to create an unrelated incentive or subsidy, e.g. to support economic activity.

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 These words are by Appropedian Peter Campbell in his blog post, Remove $8.9 billion fossil fuel subsidies to combat climate change, February 20, 2007. This information comes from Subsidies that Encourage Fossil Fuel Use in Australia Template:PDFlink, Working Paper CR2003/01, January 2003, by Christopher Riedy, PhD Candidate, [Institute for Sustainable Futures] at the ^W.

[Riedy-1] 1.0 ^1.1 These words are by Appropedian Peter Campbell in his blog post, Remove $8.9 billion fossil fuel subsidies to combat climate change, February 20, 2007. This information comes from Subsidies that Encourage Fossil Fuel Use in Australia Template:PDFlink, Working Paper CR2003/01, January 2003, by Christopher Riedy, PhD Candidate, [Institute for Sustainable Futures] at the ^W.

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