[Tax Story] Taxes Are the Vaccine in the Era of the 'Anthropocene'

Professor Ahn Chang-nam, Department of Taxation, Gangnam University

The core of the Paris Agreement (2015) to prevent global warming is to "limit the rise in the Earth's average temperature to within 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and further to below 1.5 degrees." To implement this, the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) was recently held in Glasgow, UK. It is said that the Earth's average temperature has already risen by 1.1 degrees due to greenhouse gases emitted since the Industrial Revolution. Now, only 0.4 to 0.9 degrees of margin remains.

Warnings that a 2-degree increase in the Earth's average temperature could lead to the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history due to heatwaves and other effects have long been sounded (the dinosaurs were the fifth).

According to the geological timescale, modern humans live in the Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era, specifically the Holocene epoch (the period from when glaciers melted and agriculture began until now). However, Paul Crutzen, a Dutch atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate, named the current epoch the "Anthropocene," separating it from the Holocene, due to the fixation of warming caused by the overuse of fossil fuels and air pollution since 2000. This indicates that the Earth is suffering from a serious illness.

Although belated, a day before the closing of COP26, the United States and China issued a joint statement agreeing that "climate change is a common challenge facing humanity and relates to the happiness of future generations," and pledged to work together to reduce methane emissions. However, despite this verbal feast, will it be easy to reach an agreement when it comes to "paying the price"? Skepticism remains. The Green Climate Fund, which advanced countries agreed to provide $100 billion by 2020 at the 2009 Copenhagen conference to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions, currently stands at only one-tenth of that amount. Humanity's moral capacity is not as great as expected.

The global environment is a global public good that all humanity uses. Fresh air produced in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil can be inhaled by people worldwide for free. This raises the issue of free-riding. Conversely, innocent Korean citizens suffer from yellow dust originating from China, which is a form of forced riding. Considering free-riding and forced riding, is it possible to forcibly make those responsible bear the costs?

Taxes can be used. The Chinese character for tax (稅) combines 禾 (grain) and 兌 (joy). Although taxes today are forcibly collected by the state, in the early agricultural era, returning a portion of the harvest to those who provided means of survival was more a sign of gratitude than theft for farmers struggling to survive.

If the disease called global warming can be cured, then, as in the original meaning of tax (稅), there is no reason not to pay gladly.

South Korea also has a considerable amount of carbon emissions. Tax support for industries with high greenhouse gas emissions should be abolished, and tax support should be provided for investments in warming prevention facilities.

International organizations such as the United Nations should impose a global public goods usage fee (tentatively called the "human tax") on all countries worldwide, weaving free-riding and forced riding into the fabric, so that each country bears the burden according to its capacity, and use these funds to cure the Earth's disease.

If efforts to prevent warming are delayed, by the 2050s, it will become impossible to suppress temperature rise itself. At that time, human extinction will be imminent, and regret will be too late. "You reap what you sow."