FFS 002 - The Carbon Food Tax

Taxing carbon intensive food: the rational, reasonable, feasible thing that governments should do. Or is it?

Taxing carbon-intensive foods seems like the logical thing to do. Raise the price, lower the demand. Tax food, reduce climate change. But does it really?

I talk with Dr. Ariane Kehlbacher from the University of Reading about introducing a carbon food tax to combat the negative effects our diets can have on the environment.

We first discuss the theory behind the tax, before delving into the issues that surround and complicate the initiative.

Some of the questions we’ll be discussing:

• What exactly gets taxed?

• Do consumers notice?

• Who gets taxed?

• Tax carbon = subsidising sugar?

Links:

• Kehlbacher, A., Tiffin, R., Briggs, A., Berners-Lee, M. and Scarborough, P. (2016) The distributional and nutritional impacts and mitigation potential of emission-based food taxes in the UK. Climatic Change, 137 (1-2). pp. 121- 141.

• Briggs, A. D. M., Kehlbacher, A., Tiffin, R. and Scarborough, P. (2015) Simulating the impact on health of internalising the cost of carbon in food prices combined with a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. BMC Public Health, 16 (1).