As spanish hauliers and French fishermen have shouted out for all the world to hear, higher fuel prices are not popular. This is uncomfortable for those—including this newspaper—who see increased taxation as a way of fighting global warming. Green taxes tend to fall hardest on the poor.
You could see the rise in the oil price over the past five years as a gigantic carbon tax. It is, at last, succeeding in cutting demand in the developed world (although not yet in the developing one). But it has been extremely painful for some parts of society.
There may be worse to come. Many climate experts favour the ambitious target of cutting carbon emissions by 80% before 2050. Technological change will help. But encouraging those new technologies may well call for higher energy taxes.
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