Evanston, Illinois: Everyone seems to be talking about a carbon tax.

An environmental perspective is no longer the preserve of scruffy Greenpeace types, with their nature songs and banner protests.

Germany said it would issue 451.9 million tonne say ear of carbon-dioxide pollution certificates from 2008 to 2 012, 0.3%fewer than allowed by the European Commission. Germany cut its planned emission cap because new power plants will need fewer free C02 permits than previously expected, the DEHST emissions trading unit of the environment ministry said on its website. Germany earlier set aside 11 million tonnes of C02 a year for new power plants and factories, yet permits foronly9.79milliontonnesareneeded. German utilities and energy-intensive industries want installation-level allocations of permits as they prepare for the second phase of the EU's climate control programmed. Some 1,625power plants and factories, new and in operation, will get388.86 million tones of free permitseveryyearthrough2012 according to the plan.

Tradable emissions permits are a popular, but inferior, way to tackle global warming
THE pressure for political action on climate change has never looked stronger. Even George Bush has now joined the leaders of other rich countries in their quest to negotiate a successor regime to the Kyoto protocol, the treaty on curbing greenhouse gases that expires in 2012.

Environment Tax

The levying of carbon surcharge on POL products at fixed rates was the decision of the government of Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did not ask for its imposition as conditionality under the Stand-by Arrangement (SBA).