13th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation: Barriers, Opportunities, and the Potential for Inducing Technological Innovation
Call for Papers \ Abstract Submissions \ Special Climate Technologies Paper Prize \ Special Session on British Columbia Carbon Tax
UBC Law, the UBC National Centre for Business Law, and the UBC Centre for Law and the Environment invite the submission of papers and abstracts for the 13th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, to be held in Vancouver, Canada, on September 20-22, 2012. The theme for this conference is Environmental Taxation: Barriers, Opportunities, and the Potential for Inducing Technological Innovation.
Barriers to Environmental Taxation (ET) may be political, psychological, or may take some other form. As ET has remained a controversial policy instrument despite wide support from economists, awareness of the political, psychological and other barriers to ET becomes an important element of environmental law and policy-making. Research on the barriers to ET is thus a focus of this conference.
Opportunities for ET may exist in a new global world order in which capital markets and debt markets experience increasing volatility. A spate of sovereign debt crises and political crises have left governments worldwide, rich and poor, scrambling to find new sources of revenue. In this dangerous economic environment, ET may unexpectedly present itself as the least intrusive means of raising revenue, even as it enhances welfare by internalizing environmental costs.
Finally, this conference will explore the potential for ET to unlock technological innovation to reduce emissions. Technological development in pollution reduction is critical to the continued progress of environmental law and policy. Research on how ET promotes these kinds of advances will thus be important inputs into the formulation of environmental and industrial policy.
It is expected that this conference will draw strong participation from researchers working on climate change policy. Given the importance of the climate problem, this is an appropriate emphasis. But this conference will expand the discussion well beyond the subject of carbon taxes. Topics featured in the conference program may also include the exploration of ET:
- for climate change adaptation and geo-engineering measures,
- as a funding mechanism for a variety of greenhouse gas measures,
- to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide co-pollutants,
- to help coordinate international action, and
- and its economic impacts, including analysis of distributional effects.
Far from being an exhaustive list, many other applications of ET to climate change are possible and would be welcomed for submission.
Special Climate Technologies Paper Prize
With the generous support of Carbon Management Canada, the 13th GCET includes a special call for papers on the potential for ET to induce technological progress in reducing greenhouse gases. Three papers will be selected to be a part of a special plenary panel discussion. Out of the three, one paper will be selected for a special prize of $1000 (Cdn) as the paper providing the most original and substantial contribution to climate policy. In addition, the winner of the special prize will receive a $1500 (Cdn) travel allowance to be applied to travel to this conference. Submissions pursuant to this special call must be in the form of a paper, not an abstract. Please make your submission on this conference website, in the dedicated box for submissions for this special call.
Special Session on British Columbia Carbon Tax
In 2008, British Columbia became the first jurisdiction in North America to implement a broad-based carbon tax. Five years after its introduction, the government is planning a review of this carbon tax policy. In light of this, the program committee has developed a special session at the conference devoted to assessing the British Columbia carbon tax. This session will include both invited speakers and submitted papers. We are particularly interested in retrospective analyses of the tax’s impact on households, industries and the economy as a whole. Papers submitted in response to the Special Session which are not selected will automatically be considered for concurrent sessions.
We will continue to accept papers for the Special Climate Technologies Paper Prize and the Special Session on BC Carbon Tax and both papers and abstracts for the concurrent sessions on a space available basis.
All abstracts or papers must be submitted through the conference website, using the "Submit a Paper or Abstract" tab. Some abstracts or papers will be accepted on a rolling basis, so that some early notifications will be made. Thus, some will be able to register for the conference under the Early Bird rate of $425 knowing that their abstract or paper has been accepted. Submitting early may thus be to your advantage.
Format and style of papers and abstracts
- Texts
To be presented in Times New Roman (TNR) of 11 pt; double space; left alignment.
- Document Title
To be presented in TNR 11 pt, centered, bold and capital letters.
- Author
The name of the author or co-author in TNR of 11 pt., bold and centered and should be placed below the title. Papers submitted in response to the special call for papers for the plenary session should not include the author's name.
- Sections
To be numbered in increasing order and their corresponding titles in TNR of 11 pt and bold. Within each section, the titles of the subsections must be in TNR of 11 pt.
- Page Numbers
With the exception of the cover page, all pages should be numbered on the right bottom.
- References
To be placed at the end and ordered by number.
- Length
Abstracts should not exceed 400 words. No figures, tables, footnotes, endnotes, or other references should be included in an abstract. Papers should not exceed 5000 words, including figures, tables, footnotes, endnotes, and other references.
- Papers for Special Plenary Session on Climate Technologies
Papers submitted in response to the special call for papers on Environmental Taxation and the Promotion of Technological Innovation for Greenhouse Gas Abatement should not contain any identitying information, such as the author's name. Papers will be judged on a blind review basis. Papers submitted in response to this special call but not accepted will automatically be considered for concurrent sessions.
