A Canadian Press Harris/Decima poll released in May, 2008 revealed strong support for "a carbon tax levied on people and businesses based on the carbon emissions they generate," with 61% supporting such a tax and 32% opposed. (See link further below.)
The Harris/Decima poll showed even greater support for "an environmental tax refund paid to those who succeed in reducing their use of fossil fuels, electricity, water and the amount of garbage they produce," with 80% support and only 16% opposition.
Harris/Decima President Bruce Anderson noted that the basic concept of a carbon tax becomes more popular:
when the focus is on the broader aspects of our environmental footprint, not just carbon, when it is clear that the money raised would be used to incent environmental improvement, when the idea is that those who are taxed are those who aren’t trying, and when there is a signal that environmentally thoughtful behaviour will be rewarded." (Emphasis added.)
Rewarding the "thoughtful behavior" may explain the greater support offered for the "environmental tax refund" compared to the "carbon tax." As Anderson stated:
The central concept, of taxing particularly harmful behavior, and rewarding the opposite, is a potential political winner for the party that can get it right and describe it clearly. The tag "carbon tax" and the term "revenue neutral", from a political communications standpoint, are not ideal starting points, as communications go.
"Taxing particularly harmful behavior, and rewarding the opposite" is precisely what a revenue-neutral carbon tax is designed to do. Anderson appears to be suggesting a different framing of the issue. Tax Environmental Harm, Reward Environmental Good, Harris/Decima, May 7, 2008.
May 11 Update on Canadian polls - The Canadian Press reported on unsubstantiated rumors that the Liberal Party’s pollster has found far less favorable views about carbon tax when
respondents were given details of British Columbia’s carbon tax plan. According to the rumors, "the poll found 30 per cent strongly opposed to the idea and 12 per cent somewhat opposed, compared to 23 per cent strongly supportive and 25 per cent somewhat supportive." Based upon Anderson’s conclusion above and assuming the rumored poll results are accurate, the Liberal Party pollster’s results might have been more favorable had he avoided use of the terms "carbon tax" and "revenue-neutral."
A Field Poll published last Nov. 9 reported that a majority of Californians favored a carbon tax. The poll found that 72% support a carbon tax on business, although this declined to 53% if the tax were to result in Californians’ paying higher prices for goods and services. Support for the tax grew to 65% if the tax revenues are spent solely on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, no question was asked about a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
Approximately 65% of those polled also favored the idea of a cap-and-trade system. However, those stating a preference for cap-and-trade were not asked the follow-up question about higher prices that was asked of carbon tax supporters, even though increases in prices due to cap-and-trade would be similar to those from a carbon tax. See Field Poll: Californians See Global Warming as a Serious Threat to State’s Overall Quality of Life.
Another recent poll, this one by the BBC with a sample of 22,000 people in 21 countries, found that in 14 countries "a majority (61% on average overall) say it will be necessary to increase energy costs to encourage conservation and reduce carbon emissions." The poll found that 74% of Americans support paying a higher tax on coal and oil if the revenues are used to promote efficiency or to develop new fuels, but that not surprisingly they are divided with only 46% supporting such a tax if the revenues are not used for those purposes. Like the Field Poll of Californians, the BBC poll did not ask about support for a revenue-neutral tax that would encourage conservation, reduce carbon emissions AND return the money to all Americans. Most Would Pay Higher Energy Bills to Address Climate Change Says Global Poll, World Public Opinion.Org, Nov. 5.
The BBC poll shows an increase in willingness to pay a tax to reduce carbon emissions. More than a year and a half earlier, a New York Times/CBS News Poll had found that 85 percent of adults polled would oppose an increase in the federal gasoline tax, but "[f]ifty-nine percent were in favor if the result was less gasoline consumption and less global warming." Americans Are Cautiously Open to Gas Tax Rise, Poll Shows, NYT, Feb. 28, 2006.
According to an Ipsos Reid poll reported in the Nov. 7, 2006 Vancouver Sun, 52 percent of Canadians endorse the idea of a carbon tax. Surprisingly, the province with the third highest support was oil-rich Alberta with 54 percent. Alberta followed British Columbia with 55 percent and Atlantic Canada with 59 percent. Public Surprisingly Ready to Accept a ‘Carbon Tax.’
During the past three years there has been a "substantial increase in people’s willingness to spend their own money to do something about [global warming]. In 2003, people were willing to pay on average $14 more per month on their electricity bill to "solve" global warming. In 2006 they agreed to pay $21 more per month–a 50 percent increase in their willingness to pay." MIT Survey: Climate Change Tops American’s Environmental Concerns, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, October 31, 2006 press release.
In early 2007, the International Herald Tribune and the French television station France 24 retained Harris Interactive to survey residents of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States for attitudes on pollution taxes and the "polluter pays" principle. The respondents, over 6,000 persons, overwhelmingly said they believed that industrial companies should be taxed according to the amount of pollution they produce. Although the poll evidently didn’t include questions about carbon taxing, the findings are very encouraging, as indicated by these passages in the Herald Tribune’s article (Poll finds strong support in Europe and U.S. for polluter taxes, Feb. 23, 2007):
Analysts said the poll results indicated that the public wanted responsibility for global warming to bear a financial consequence, even though such costs would probably be passed on to consumers.
"It is extremely significant that so many people want action taken on climate change and that they want costs attached to it," said Kirsty Hamilton, a London-based international policy expert on climate change.
Respondents in all six countries also strongly agreed that politicians were not doing enough to address the challenge of global warming.
In March, 2007, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute reported in its weekly Climate Change News, Climate Change Seen as Big a Threat as Terrorism:
A new Yale research survey reveals that fully 83 percent of Americans now say global warming is a "serious" problem, up from 70 percent in 2004. The survey of 1,000 adults nationwide shows that 63 percent of Americans agree that the United States … is in as much danger from environmental hazards, such as air pollution and global warming, as it is from terrorists… Seventy-five percent of respondents recognize that their own behavior can help to reduce global warming, and 81 percent believe it is their responsibility to do so. Forty-three percent believe that preventing global warming is a religious duty.
"The coalition supporting action on climate change has broadened considerably," said Gus Speth, dean of Yale’s environment school. "With the public ready for carbon controls and business stepping up to the climate change challenge, it is disappointing that our political leadership is lagging so badly on this issue." The survey was conducted on behalf of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies by Global Strategy Group from February 5 to 11, 2007.
For a compilation of survey results on global warming issues, see Climate Change Fact Sheet, April 2006.
