IMF Wants To Dictate Giant Carbon Tax To Crush Economies

Oct. 11, 2019 (EIRNS)—The International Monetary Fund today recommended that countries around the world place taxes on “carbon-based” production (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.), so large that they would drastically cut production and use of the energy sources on which most human economic activity still depends.

“The IMF Wants Massive Carbon Taxes To Fight Climate Change” wrote Axios in a typical headline reporting the $75/ton tax, which the Fund said should be put on fossil fuel sources of energy and uses in industry by 2030. This it claimed was necessary to keep the global temperature (in reality, the temperature graphs in computer models purporting to simulate climate) from rising by more than 2° Centigrade. The actual rise over the past 130-140 years has been approximately 0.4°C.

Since coal currently costs $45-50/ton and oil prices work out to roughly $300/ton, such a tax would destroy their production and use. They account for 60% of worldwide energy production.” But meanwhile the tax proceeds should be “redistributed to poor households,” the Fund said in its Fiscal “Monitor: How To Mitigate Climate Change” October 2019 report.

The “poor households” could perhaps then burn the currency instead of the carbon fuels—but no amount of funds would pay for fossil fuel-powered electricity not being generated.

Current carbon taxes in various countries around the world average about $2/ton.

The report was announced by the IMF’s new Managing Director, Bulgarian economist Kristalina Georgieva.