ABSTRACT
Carbon pricing (CP), both in terms of carbon emission taxes or emissions trading systems, is widely being promoted as the most suitable instrument to lead economies towards a low-carbon future. Neoclassical Economics Theory (NET) supports a “global and uniform carbon price across countries and sectors so that polluters do not simply move operations to so-called ‘pollution havens’ – countries where a lack of environmental regulation enables them to continue to pollute without restrictions”. This chapter confronts the NET position on CP and global uniform carbon price (GUCP) with a diverse world, asking attention for diversity as important factor in real policymaking. It documents the concept of diversity for use in a policy context. The chapter then describes the GUCP discourse, and states why the actual performance of GUCP cannot be assessed. It also focuses on the meaning of diversity for carbon pricing and climate policy.
