ABSTRACT
In December 2009, the Irish government introduced carbon taxation. The tax on fossil fuels was originally set at €15 per tonne of carbon dioxide (€15/tCO2) and then raised to €20, two years later. Both coal and peat (the second is an important local energy source) were initially exempt, but as of 2013 the tax applies to all fossil fuels without exceptions. The sectors already regulated by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) are not subject to the tax, however, as emissions would simply ‘move’ somewhere else in the EU — the tax within the EU ETS would be environmentally ineffective (Conefrey et al. 2008). 2
