Sunday 7 April 2019

Seems like good value to me.

From the BBC:

In their "summary for policymakers", the scientists stated that: "All pathways that limit global warming to 1.5C with limited or no overshoot project the use of [Carbon Dioxide Removal] ...over the 21st century."

Around the world, a number of companies are racing to develop the technology that can draw down carbon. Swiss company Climeworks is already capturing CO2 and using it to boost vegetable production.

Carbon Engineering says that its direct air capture (DAC) process is now able to capture the gas for under $100 a tonne.


Putting all cynicism to one side* and taking all of this at face value, let's go with it and look at motoring (we could do the same for electricity generation, but the numbers are more difficult to track down and so subject to far larger margins of error).

In round numbers...

$100 per tonne = £77 per tonne = 7.7p per kg.

One litre of petrol or diesel = about 2.5 kg of CO2.

2.5 kg x 7.7p/kg = 20p.

Pump price per litre = £1.20, of which about £0.80 is VAT and Fuel Duty.

Taxes on fuel are an excellent kind of tax, don't get me wrong, but only about one-quarter of taxes on motoring (in the wider sense) are spent on the direct costs of motoring (roads, traffic police, emergency services etc) and three-quarters is 'social surplus' which rightfully belongs to the whole community to spend as it will.

If the whole community decides that one-third of the social surplus should be spent on 'fighting climate change', then we're all sorted. If they would rather spend it on something else, that's their decision and not the motorists' problem.

* I don't believe a word of any of it, but I like quoting people's numbers back at them.

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