The stick or the carrot?

The carrot or the stick?  Tax or tax relief?  Which is the best way to tackle climate change?  Well, not surprisingly, business would rather take the carrot.  So much so, in fact, that a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers suggests that the current disjointed array of government policies aimed at tackling carbon emissions are simply ineffective.  A massive 71% of industry respondents to the scheme claimed that their behaviour had been changed.  But almost half said that Government policy and economic instruments - taxes, duties, the climate-change levy and investment allowances - are "not effective" in encouraging business to "significantly" change its behaviour.  I am not surprised either - I have long said that taxation as a method of tackling climate change is a smoke screen.  It is a very effective way of raising money for the government and most people back it because of misinformation and a blind desire to "be green".

Never before has the appetite for business to adapt to change, yet the government is actually stifling their ability to pursue more "green" methods by limiting their behaviour rather than encouraging green behaviour.  The report stated that "-Government needs to find a way of getting companies to do the right thing, but in a way that doesn't penalise companies-".  The first step to this would be to actually have a framework across government departments for tackling the problem rather than thinking that slapping an arbitrary tax on an activity will solve the problem.  I wonder if Chancellor Darling (aka Gordon Brown) will make a difference?  After all, these are times of change.