India Not Happy with Carbon Tax

The plan of the EU and the United States to tax coal and other carbon intensive products is not sitting well with developing nations like India, as presented in the article linked above.  India and other developing nations will be quite vocal in their opposition to the concept at the Glasgow global climate summit to be held in November.

We hear the common argument that it’s unfair that the developed world, i.e., those that caused the climate crisis in the first place, are making it impossible for the third world to achieve prosperity by driving up the cost of energy.  Of course, the globe is essentially on fire, so that line of discourse has its limits.

If the world hadn’t developed into 200+ sovereign nations, each with its own culture, essentially at odds with one another, none of this hand-wringing would be necessary.  Nor would there be any war, slavery, or all the other forms of mass exploitation.  But the notion of a “one-world” didn’t happen, and even if it did,  it might have had its own horrors, perhaps as described in Orwell’s 1984. Imagine a world commanded by Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, or Donald Trump.

Above: India’s Minister of the Environment, Prakash Javadekar.  Photo by Bloomberg’s T. Narayan.