When the mining industry fights carbon taxes, it is arguing against its own economic interests, suggests new research from UBC’s Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.
A global carbon tax would bring a financial windfall to the mining industry by forcing a shift in other industries to cleaner technologies that depend on metals and minerals, and any tax on carbon emissions from mining would be small in relation to the value of high-demand commodities generated by the industry.
“The mining industry has a long history of fighting against taxes — all taxes, but especially carbon taxes. We’ve proven that they’re fighting the wrong battles,” said Sally Innis, a PhD candidate in mining engineering who co-wrote the study. “The mining industry actually has both a financial and reputational incentive to support harmonized carbon taxation.”
Carbon taxation discourages the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by forcing companies to pay for emissions from their activities. The policy is promoted as a way to fight climate change and limit the rise in global mean temperatures to 2°C by 2100, a target set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
The new study shows two primary reasons why the mining industry’s traditional opposition to carbon taxes is misguided:
- Mining is less carbon-intensive than other industries. It emits relatively little carbon dioxide for each dollar of value it produces.
- Demand for mining commodities would skyrocket under a global carbon tax, fuelled by other industries forced to transform in order to survive the tax.
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