LONDON
Britain's carbon tax on power producers, first introduced in 2013, almost doubled on Wednesday.
Britain's carbon tax, which charges power producers for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit, has increased from £10.65 ($15.75) in 2013 to £18.08 ($27) in 2014.
Britain is the second largest importer of coal in Europe, after Germany.
Power generation from coal fell to a five-year low in 2014, data released last month by the government showed.
It introduced the carbon tax in 2013 to enable it to achieve a cost‐effective reduction in emissions.
The carbon tax law is a form of explicit carbon pricing directly linked to the level of carbon dioxide emissions.
In 2014, the British government backed the carbon price floor in a report saying "the introduction of the price floor will play a very important role in building incentives for investment in cleaner technologies as it is based on the 'polluter pays principle.'”
Carbon taxes provide certainty over the marginal cost faced by emitters, but do not guarantee a maximum level of emission reductions, unlike emissions trading schemes.
