IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v217y2024ics0921800923003087.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impossible love of fossil fuel companies for carbon taxes

Author

Listed:
  • Naef, Alain

Abstract

Economists agree that carbon taxes are the most effective solution for climate change mitigation. But where do fossil fuel companies stand on carbon taxes? I analyse how the 100 largest oil and gas companies communicate on carbon taxes. Surprisingly, I find that 54% of companies that have a policy on carbon taxes support them (78% for the 50 largest). This is puzzling as an effective carbon tax should reduce the revenues and reserve value of fossil fuel companies. To understand this paradox, I offer non-mutually exclusive reasons why fossil fuel companies might support carbon taxes. Oil and gas companies could use a carbon tax to get rid of the competition from coal, create a level playing field and remove regulatory uncertainty. Or they think that these taxes will not affect them because demand for oil and gas is inelastic or that international coordination will fail and lead to leakages. Finally, it could be that this is simply a communication exercise. A carbon tax helps them shift the responsibility from fossil fuel companies to customers, voters and elected officials.

Suggested Citation

  • Naef, Alain, 2024. "The impossible love of fossil fuel companies for carbon taxes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:217:y:2024:i:c:s0921800923003087
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800923003087
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108045?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krichene, Noureddine, 2002. "World crude oil and natural gas: a demand and supply model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 557-576, November.
    2. Nick Bloom & Stephen Bond & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Uncertainty and Investment Dynamics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(2), pages 391-415.
    3. Gregor Semieniuk & Emanuele Campiglio & Jean‐Francois Mercure & Ulrich Volz & Neil R. Edwards, 2021. "Low‐carbon transition risks for finance," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), January.
    4. Douenne, Thomas & Fabre, Adrien, 2020. "French attitudes on climate change, carbon taxation and other climate policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    5. Dash, Devi Prasad & Sethi, Narayan & Bal, Debi Prasad, 2018. "Is the demand for crude oil inelastic for India? Evidence from structural VAR analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 552-558.
    6. Coulomb, Renaud & Henriet, Fanny, 2018. "The Grey Paradox: How fossil-fuel owners can benefit from carbon taxation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 206-223.
    7. Z. Eylem Gevrek & Ayse Uyduranoglu, 2015. "Public Preferences for Carbon Tax Attributes," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2015-15, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    8. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    9. Naef Alain & Klooster Jens van ’t, 2022. "Responsibility for Emissions: the Case of the Swiss National Bank’s Foreign Exchange Reserves and the Norwegian Oil Fund," Working papers 872, Banque de France.
    10. William Nordhaus, 2019. "Climate Change: The Ultimate Challenge for Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(6), pages 1991-2014, June.
    11. Jaakkola, Niko, 2019. "Carbon taxation, OPEC and the end of oil," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 101-117.
    12. Donald B. Marron & Eric J. Toder, 2014. "Tax Policy Issues in Designing a Carbon Tax," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 563-568, May.
    13. James Morton Turner, 2014. "Counting Carbon: The Politics of Carbon Footprints and Climate Governance from the Individual to the Global," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 14(1), pages 59-78, February.
    14. Naef, Alain, 2022. "Shareholder engagement for climate change: Lessons from the ExxonMobil vs Engine No.1 proxy battle," SocArXiv 3b5d4, Center for Open Science.
    15. Nicolas Schneider, 2023. "Climate policy, resource owners’ anticipations and the green paradox: model set-up and empirical considerations," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 33-43, January.
    16. Frederick van der Ploeg & Cees Withagen, 2015. "Global Warming and the Green Paradox: A Review of Adverse Effects of Climate Policies," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 285-303.
    17. Holladay, J. Scott & Mohsin, Mohammed & Pradhan, Shreekar, 2018. "Emissions leakage, environmental policy and trade frictions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 95-113.
    18. DAUBANES, Julien & LASSERRE, Pierre, 2011. "Optimum Commodity Taxation with a Non-Renewable Resource," Cahiers de recherche 03-2011, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    19. Moore, Alvon, 2011. "Demand elasticity of oil in Barbados," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3515-3519, June.
    20. James D. Hamilton, 2009. "Understanding Crude Oil Prices," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 179-206.
    21. Coulomb, Renaud & Henriet, Fanny, 2018. "The Grey Paradox: How fossil-fuel owners can benefit from carbon taxation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 206-223.
    22. Martin L. Weitzman, 2015. "Internalizing the Climate Externality: Can a Uniform Price Commitment Help?," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    23. Cecilia Bellora & Lionel Fontagné, 2022. "EU in Search of a WTO-Compatible Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism," Working Papers 2022-01, CEPII research center.
    24. Andrade de Sá, Saraly & Daubanes, Julien, 2016. "Limit pricing and the (in)effectiveness of the carbon tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 28-39.
    25. Joel P. Trachtman, 2017. "WTO Law Constraints on Border Tax Adjustment and Tax Credit Mechanisms to Reduce the Competitive Effects of Carbon Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 70(2), pages 469-494, June.
    26. Nordhaus, William, 1982. "How Fast Should We Graze the Global Commons?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 242-246, May.
    27. Boon, Marten, 2019. "A Climate of Change? The Oil Industry and Decarbonization in Historical Perspective," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 93(1), pages 101-125, April.
    28. Meredith Fowlie & Mar Reguant, 2018. "Challenges in the Measurement of Leakage Risk," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 124-129, May.
    29. Cairns, Robert D., 2014. "The green paradox of the economics of exhaustible resources," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 78-85.
    30. James D. Hamilton, 2009. "Understanding Crude Oil Prices," The Energy Journal, , vol. 30(2), pages 179-206, April.
    31. Simon Dietz & Charles Fruitiere & Carlota Garcia-Manas & William Irwin & Bruno Rauis & Rory Sullivan, 2018. "An assessment of climate action by high-carbon global corporations," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(12), pages 1072-1075, December.
    32. Cheng, Ya & Sinha, Avik & Ghosh, Vinit & Sengupta, Tuhin & Luo, Huawei, 2021. "Carbon Tax and Energy Innovation at Crossroads of Carbon Neutrality: Designing a Sustainable Decarbonization Policy," MPRA Paper 108185, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    33. Bristow, Abigail L. & Wardman, Mark & Zanni, Alberto M. & Chintakayala, Phani K., 2010. "Public acceptability of personal carbon trading and carbon tax," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1824-1837, July.
    34. Gevrek, Z.Eylem & Uyduranoglu, Ayse, 2015. "Public preferences for carbon tax attributes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 186-197.
    35. Michielsen, Thomas O., 2014. "Brown backstops versus the green paradox," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 87-110.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Borui Tian & Mingyue Zheng & Wenjie Liu & Yueqing Gu & Yi Xing & Chongchao Pan, 2024. "Impacts of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on the Development of Chinese Steel Enterprises and Government Management Decisions: A Tripartite Evolutionary Game Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-32, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johannes Pfeiffer, 2017. "Fossil Resources and Climate Change – The Green Paradox and Resource Market Power Revisited in General Equilibrium," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 77.
    2. Hart, Rob & Gars, Johan, 2022. "The black paradox," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    3. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric & Hofkes, Marjan W., 2021. "(Bio-)Fuel mandating and the green paradox," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. van der Meijden, Gerard & Withagen, Cees, 2019. "Limit pricing, climate policies, and imperfect substitution," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Freyre, Alisa & Klinke, Sandra & Patel, Martin K., 2020. "Carbon tax and energy programs for buildings: Rivals or allies?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    6. Marz, Waldemar & Pfeiffer, Johannes, 2020. "Petrodollar recycling, oil monopoly, and carbon taxes," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Stefano Carattini & Maria Carvalho & Sam Fankhauser, 2018. "Overcoming public resistance to carbon taxes," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(5), September.
    8. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, 2022. "Rendre acceptable la nécessaire taxation du carbone. Quelles pistes pour la France ?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 15-53.
    9. Akkaya Sahin & Bakkal Ufuk, 2020. "Carbon Leakage Along with the Green Paradox Against Carbon Abatement? A Review Based on Carbon Tax," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 20(1), pages 25-44, June.
    10. Marz, Waldemar & Pfeiffer, Johannes, 2023. "Fossil resource market power and capital markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    11. Kruse, Tobias & Atkinson, Giles, 2022. "Understanding public support for international climate adaptation payments: Evidence from a choice experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    12. Malik Curuk & Suphi Sen, 2023. "Climate Policy and Resource Extraction with Variable Markups and Imperfect Substitutes," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 1091-1120.
    13. Bourgeois, Cyril & Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan & Quirion, Philippe, 2021. "Lump-sum vs. energy-efficiency subsidy recycling of carbon tax revenue in the residential sector: A French assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    14. Jakub Sokołowski & Piotr Lewandowski & Jan Frankowski, 2023. "How to Prevent Yellow Vests? Evaluating Preferences for a Carbon Tax with a Discrete Choice Experiment," IBS Working Papers 03/2023, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    15. Thomas Douenne & Adrien Fabre, 2019. "Can We Reconcile French People with the Carbon Tax? Disentangling Beliefs from Preferences," Policy Papers 2019.05, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    16. Ewald, Jens & Sterner, Thomas & Sterner, Erik, 2022. "Understanding the resistance to carbon taxes: Drivers and barriers among the general public and fuel-tax protesters," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    17. van der Meijden, Gerard & Benchekroun, Hassan & van der Ploeg, Frederick & Withagen, Cees, 2023. "Do strong oligopolies reverse Green Paradox effects?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    18. Stefano Carattini & Andrea Baranzini & Philippe Thalmann & Frédéric Varone & Frank Vöhringer, 2017. "Green Taxes in a Post-Paris World: Are Millions of Nays Inevitable?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(1), pages 97-128, September.
    19. Eleyan, Mohammed I.Abu & Çatık, Abdurrahman Nazif & Balcılar, Mehmet & Ballı, Esra, 2021. "Are long-run income and price elasticities of oil demand time-varying? New evidence from BRICS countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    20. Dong, Minyi & Chang, Chun-Ping & Gong, Qiang & Chu, Yin, 2019. "Revisiting global economic activity and crude oil prices: A wavelet analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 134-149.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Carbon tax; Fossil fuel companies; Emission mitigation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L71 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels
    • Q38 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy (includes OPEC Policy)
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:217:y:2024:i:c:s0921800923003087. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.