A note about drugs
Ho Yi’s article (“Note on drugs,” Aug. 12, page 12) was engrossing because it depicted a Chinese nationalist perspective on drug use and the irony in the relationship between drugs and modernity in ancient China.
There were two opium wars between China on one side, and Britain and France on the other.
Drug use, reflecting the conception of opium, is framed as an invasion of imperialism. This touch of nationalism explains why drug traffickers can be sentenced to death in China, which sometimes raises alarms among human rights advocates in the West.
Medical anthropologists make efforts to explore the relationship between modernity and drugs in other cultures. Anjalee Cohen, for example, examines methamphetamine use by young Thais. Strikingly, Thai youths use drugs to gain a sense of recognition from Western societies because drugs are associated with Western medicine and therefore represent modernity.
Two mindsets in Asian nations represent two trajectories of being civilized amid Western influences: confrontation and gaining acceptance. Which way is Taiwan leaning?
Wang Chingning
Australia
Carbon pricing picture
Carbon pricing, or “putting a price on carbon” is a market mechanism to mitigate climate change by charging governments, businesses and municipalities for carbon dioxide emissions. The general idea of pricing carbon is a method that is favored by many economists — they believe that by purchasing the “right” to emit will provide proper economic incentives to limit global emissions.
The rationale of putting a price on carbon is multi-layered. However, the main assumption behind the idea is that there is tremendous cost to humanity from climate change.
The costs come in different forms. For example, increased extreme weather events such as droughts and floods affect livelihoods and mortality rates, while the warming of the climate increases the prevalence of infectious diseases, which raises healthcare costs. These costs are masked by natural disasters, insurance costs, agricultural loss and damage, and medical expenses.
There are obviously more costs associated with climate change, many of which are subtle and often unknown to scientists. The bottom line is that a price on carbon could potentially transfer the social and economic costs to the source. Through this means, not only are the effects of climate change felt directly by those that emit carbon dioxide, the burden on society — in most cases, vulnerable and underprivileged people — can be rightfully reallocated.
There are two main mechanisms to price carbon: an emissions trading scheme (ETS) and a carbon tax. An ETS is also referred to as a cap-and-trade system, which essentially means capping the level of greenhouse gas emissions, and allowing these “quotas” to be traded among emitters and those that “under emit.”
The supply-and-demand curve that is created by an ETS establishes a market price for carbon, which provides monetary disincentives for emitters and ensures that the aggregate emissions are capped at a scientifically acceptable level.
A carbon tax scheme is different in that it sets a price on carbon, ie, a tax rate. This is more commonly applied to the carbon content of fossil fuels. The main difference, in terms of the carbon reduction outcome between an ETS and a carbon tax is that, unlike the former, a carbon tax’s reduction outcome is not predetermined.
To date, there are more than 40 countries and 20 cities that have implemented one or more forms of carbon pricing. Altogether, these jurisdictions’ aggregate carbon trading encompasses about 22 percent of global emissions.
This number is anticipated to increase and to eventually cover up to half of the global emissions given the current trajectory of carbon pricing adoption.
Among these jurisdictions, China, the EU and California are a few that have already adopted such schemes on a rather ambitious level. Other countries, such as Mexico, South Korea and Chile, have also begun concrete carbon pricing actions.
In addition to national, sub-national and local municipalities, the private sector is a major driving force for the adoption of carbon pricing.
At the same time, there are different schools of thought on the definition of carbon pricing. The broader, or a more indirect, but accurate definition of carbon pricing could be a fuel tax, the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, or the purchasing of “carbon offset” credits by generating power using renewable energy sources or paying for forestation.
The momentum for a market mechanism to control greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn mitigates climate change, is one that is unstoppable.
Leaders around the world are not asking whether carbon pricing works, but how to effectively operationalize it.
Angela Yeh
Taipei
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