Yeah, I'm the Tax, Man

British Think Tank Proposes a "Kyoto Tax" for the U.S.

With Europeans none too happy about the U.S. having ditched the Kyoto Protocol, a British think tank has come up with an idea for making the U.S. pay its fair share to deal with climate change: trade sanctions. The New Economics Foundation has proposed that the European Union tax imports from countries that refuse to cut their emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases, arguing that these countries -- the U.S. being the most notable among them -- are getting an unfair competitive advantage as energy costs rise in nations that are working to curb their emissions. "There are very few signals the United States understands -- they do understand economic signals," said Andrew Simms of the foundation.