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Attitudes towards CO2 taxation - is there an Al Gore effect?

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  • Åsa Lofgren
  • Katarina Nordblom

Abstract

Fuel taxes are one of the most powerful climate policies. Yet, these taxes have not been given very much attention in the global debate regarding climate policy, compared with other instruments, such as tradable emission permits. This article shows, however, that the immense media coverage during fall 2006 significantly affected people's attitudes towards the CO2 tax on gasoline. We conducted a survey where we asked for people's opinions about the CO2 tax in September and in December 2006, i.e. before and after the release of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' and the Stern Review. We found that the attitude towards the level of the CO2 tax was significantly changed after these events; people became much more positive towards the tax. This signals that using the CO2 tax as an important climate policy becomes more politically feasible and legitimate when more attention is drawn to climate change problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Åsa Lofgren & Katarina Nordblom, 2010. "Attitudes towards CO2 taxation - is there an Al Gore effect?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(9), pages 845-848.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:17:y:2010:i:9:p:845-848
    DOI: 10.1080/13504850802584849
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sterner, Thomas, 2007. "Fuel taxes: An important instrument for climate policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3194-3202, June.
    2. Stefano DellaVigna & Ethan Kaplan, 2007. "The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1187-1234.
    3. Danielson, Anders J. & Holm, Hakan J., 2007. "Do you trust your brethren?: Eliciting trust attitudes and trust behavior in a Tanzanian congregation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 255-271, February.
    4. Werner Güth & Carsten Schmidt & Matthias Sutter, 2007. "Bargaining outside the lab - a newspaper experiment of a three-person ultimatum game," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(518), pages 449-469, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Richard S.J. Tol, 2013. "Long live the Kyoto Protocol!," Chapters, in: Roger Fouquet (ed.), Handbook on Energy and Climate Change, chapter 14, pages 344-351, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Nanthakumar, Loganathan & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Taha, Roshaiza, 2014. "The Effect of Green Taxation and Economic Growth on Environment Hazards: The Case of Malaysia," MPRA Paper 56843, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Jun 2014.
    3. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-494 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ho, Thong Quoc & Nie, Zihan & Alpizar, Francisco & Carlsson, Fredrik & Nam, Pham Khanh, 2022. "Celebrity endorsement in promoting pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 68-86.
    5. McIntosh, C.R. & Wilmot, N.A. & Skalberg, R.K., 2015. "Paying for harbor maintenance in the US: Options for moving past the Harbor Maintenance Tax," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 210-221.
    6. Loganathan, Nanthakumar & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Taha, Roshaiza, 2014. "The link between green taxation and economic growth on CO2 emissions: Fresh evidence from Malaysia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1083-1091.
    7. Hrvoje Simovic & Helena Blazic & Ana Stambuk, 2014. "Perspectives of tax reforms in Croatia: expert opinion survey," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 38(4), pages 405-439.
    8. Fabrizio Carmignani & Grace Lordan & KK Tang, 2010. "Does aid for HIV respond to media pressure?," Discussion Papers Series 414, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.

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