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It has been a little under five years since 196 countries negotiated the Paris Agreement, under which they committed to taking steps to limit the increase in global average temperature this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, and ultimately to limit that increase to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). Under the agreement, each signatory submits its own national plan, setting targets for emissions reductions and specifying pathways by which it aims to meet those targets.
Despite the 2015 agreement, global carbon emissions increased 1.7 percent in 2017 and a further 2.7 percent in 2018; it has been estimated that the rate of increase in 2019 will be among the highest on record. The last four years have been the hottest on record, with 2019 on track to make it five. But analyses suggest that fast action now can reduce carbon emissions within 12 years and hold global increases below 2 degrees C and perhaps 1.5.
Environmental taxes are used by local governments as a tool to reduce and control environmental damage and revenue is explained to be directed to promote economic growth through innovation. The effectiveness of taxation as an environmental instrument suffers of the boundaries given by national jurisdictions to a deployment at a global level and of the skepticism of common people.
Cesca Accounting is helping independent research on environmental taxation policies studies.
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