I wanted to drive through Zambia trying to get from the country on one side to another on the other side some time towards the end of the 2010 decade. At the Zambian boarder the “agents”, people that help process custom issues, passport checks and currency converting, these agents told me that before I got permission to drive into the country even if it was just to get to the other side I would have to pay a third party insurance fee and a carbon-tax fee. My bro and travel companion called it “extortion”: a word that I didn’t understand at the time but have now come to learn to mean using force to make me pay for something leveraged against the position of power you’re in.
Third party insurance: totally understandable, and because of this, it allows the government to put any figure they feel is right on it because it is a justifiable fee. Of course this only expands the Zambian government’s tax pool. My argument here is that the carbon tax does the same but it is not a justifiable fee. So for the government it simply makes the country richer…but how is it not extortion?!...
In South Africa there are some people engaged in environmental friendly activities that earn them what is call carbon points. These point are than traded with multinational companies or foreign government for a substantial amount of cash which makes the South African person richer and it earns the multinational company carbon points. Hmm what is my point?!...
China wants to purchase aeroplanes but because of the emissions from their engines they stand to be taxed by European countries. However, the Chinese government intends to use the aeroplanes in their own air space and don’t want to pay the Europeans tax fees for polluting their own air space. I read somewhere that some other airlines flying into Europe including some United States airlines are already paying that pollution fine.
I suppose the point I am trying to make here is that the ‘carbon factor’ has set in motion some very interesting dynamics around the world. Absurd hmm, maybe?!...