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UN chief asks wealthy nations to impose windfall taxes on fossil fuel industry

• hulitu 4y ago
  Pay a tax and cut more trees.
• HFguy 4y ago
  I’ll bite. One impact here would be to reduce future investment in fossil fuels which will increase future prices. Because why would you invest? So setting up for future higher prices.
  • yakak 4y ago
    Do you want people to invest in tools to extract and burn all fossil fuels as quickly as possible or alternatives to fossil fuels? I would prefer the latter which means high taxes on fossil fuels and/or subsidies on its alternatives to push investment.
    • deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    • Aerroon 4y ago
      What's the alternative? We've had renewable investments for a while now. People have been swearing up and down how renewables are cheaper and better alternatives and yet... We're in an energy crisis now, because we're not getting enough fossil fuels to burn.
      • toomuchtodo 4y ago
        Renewables are cheaper (and plentiful). If you choose to not build them, no one will shed a tear when you get punched in the face. How’s Germany’s “nuclear turndown and be beholden to Russian gas” policy working out? Regardless, stop subsidizing fossil fuels. There is no reason not to resource an energy transition and electrification of everything effort as if it was a war effort. To not do so is, clearly, full of economic peril.
        • FunnyBadger 4y ago
          • toomuchtodo 4y ago
            • dang 4y ago
              Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes everything worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
          • dang 4y ago
            We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines. Please don't create accounts to do that with. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        • JohnHaugeland 4y ago
          Renewables are only cheaper if you count nuclear as a renewable. When people say solar is cheaper, they neglect to consider the supporting subsidies, or the fact that 76% on global average of solar power is actually natural gas in-fill. At that rate, the whole grid could go solar and climate change would only be set back three years. It's a farce.
          • toomuchtodo 4y ago
            High level, fossil gas filling in when there are renewable shortfalls is acceptable in the short term due to the rapid energy transition occurring. Australia is on track to hit 100% renewables with solar, wind, batteries, hydro, and transmission in the next decade for example. https://reneweconomy.com.au/a-near-100-per-cent-renewables-grid-is-well-within-reach-and-with-little-storage/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/a-near-100-per-cent-renewables-g... Europe has equivalent wind potential to being able to power the world. As more renewables are deployed, this continues to push fossil gas to the margins. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/wind-power-in-europe-giant-wind-farm-could-power-entire-world/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/wind-power-in-europe-... NextEra’s latest investor deck forecasts battery backed solar and wind cheaper than existing natural gas, coal, and nuclear in the US before the end of the decade. https://cleantechnica.com/files/2022/06/lcoe-small.jpg?mrf-size=m https://cleantechnica.com/files/2022/06/lcoe-small.jpg?mrf-s... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=nextera%20investor%20deck&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
• kramerger 4y ago
  If you can do it in every country then I am all for it. If you do it in your country but your neighbouring country doesn't, then the companies will simply move and things will just get more expensive.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• bakal 4y ago
  • rs999gti 4y ago