Political aspects of the Carbon Added Tax

Generally, people dislike taxes, except when the taxpayer is someone else and the beneficiaries are themselves. For this reason, politicians attempt to impose taxes in a manner that makes their payer a relatively small group of people and their beneficiaries as large as possible. It is no different from CO2 emission limits, which are also a form of tax. They were imposed on almost all CO2 emitters, but they were not imposed on car owners.The question may be asked why airlines have to pay for emissions and car owners do not? The answer is clear, simple, and obvious. Too many voters are simply owners of cars, and it would be political suicide to impose any restrictions on this group of voters. This inconsistency is contrary to the objective of reducing emissions but completely rational in political terms. Now, let's analyze the CAT tax politically. The direct taxpayers will be the owners of coal mines, shareholders of oil companies, and importers of fossil fuels; it is a very small group of people. For example, in Poland, we have 170,000 miners, which represents about 0.5% of voters. But 100% of voters can be the beneficiaries of subsidies flowing from CAT because even miners and owners of Exxon Mobil emit CO2 in some way. All of them, from owners of coal power plants to owners of gas stoves, can benefit materially from the subsidies flowing from CAT. This should increase the popularity of climate-saving measures for both voters and politicians.

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