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Drinking water: Carbon pricing revenues could close infrastructure gaps
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/160415-water-mcc.html[font face=Serif]15 April 2016
[font size=5]Drinking water: Carbon pricing revenues could close infrastructure gaps[/font]
[font size=4]More than 700 million people have no running water. A study released today shows that a carbon tax could help remedy this situation while contributing considerably to climate protection.[/font]
[font size=3]A tax on CO₂ emissions could make it possible to finance the drinking water supply in the majority of countries worldwide by the year 2030, according to a new study by researchers at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
In India alone, a carbon tax would generate around 115 billion US$ a year, and only a fraction of that would be needed for clean water, meaning that enough money would remain for sanitation and electricity, the study shows. In fact, the needed infrastructure for water, sanitation, and electricity in this second largest country in the world would each consume only about 4% of the revenue raised by the tax in the country.
However the study also shows there are a few countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where carbon pricing would not suffice, because carbon emissions there are so low that they would yield little revenue. “However, this funding gap could be closed when considering that developing countries have not yet exhausted their right to use the atmosphere,” says MCC researcher Michael Jacob, lead author of the study. “Avoidance of emissions would then entitle them to compensation payments from industrialized countries.”[/font]
…[/font]
[font size=5]Drinking water: Carbon pricing revenues could close infrastructure gaps[/font]
[font size=4]More than 700 million people have no running water. A study released today shows that a carbon tax could help remedy this situation while contributing considerably to climate protection.[/font]
[font size=3]A tax on CO₂ emissions could make it possible to finance the drinking water supply in the majority of countries worldwide by the year 2030, according to a new study by researchers at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
In India alone, a carbon tax would generate around 115 billion US$ a year, and only a fraction of that would be needed for clean water, meaning that enough money would remain for sanitation and electricity, the study shows. In fact, the needed infrastructure for water, sanitation, and electricity in this second largest country in the world would each consume only about 4% of the revenue raised by the tax in the country.
However the study also shows there are a few countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where carbon pricing would not suffice, because carbon emissions there are so low that they would yield little revenue. “However, this funding gap could be closed when considering that developing countries have not yet exhausted their right to use the atmosphere,” says MCC researcher Michael Jacob, lead author of the study. “Avoidance of emissions would then entitle them to compensation payments from industrialized countries.”[/font]
[center]
Figure: Share of carbon pricing revenues required to finance universal access to water infrastructure under domestic carbon pricing (i.e., without transfers between countries) for an average 2°C scenario. The darker the color, the higher the share, with dark purple shares exceeding 100%. White areas denote countries for which data are not available. Please note the logarithmic scale.[/center]
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