Carbon Tax should be $75 per ton – IMF

By Zeba Tarunnum

Pakistan is about to get a $600 crore loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF). This Organization opined that industries that emit Greenhouse gass (GHGs) highly should pay tax.

It said, to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, a Carbon tax should be imposed $75 per ton of carbon dioxide emission on those industries that emitted highly GHGs as compensation, it has known from a publication of a UK-based media ‘The Guardian’.

 “Industries will have to pay the taxes according to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the production of its commodities and if it could be, only then, the Paris Agreement’s aim can be attained.” Said IMF.

This system of paying for carbon emissions is called a ‘carbon pricing system’. Many countries around the world are currently using this system. However, no internationally recognized price has been set yet.

Appealing to G20 countries the IMF said, developing countries should set the prices for their carbon emission industries. This is the fastest and easiest way to reduce carbon emissions to zero.

According to the 2015’s Paris Agreement on climate change protection, global warming was expected to be between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius by this century. According to the IMF, to achieve this goal, a $75 carbon tax should be realized per ton of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.