A tax on carbon-intensive ground beef could make you think twice about eating a burger for dinner. But is it enough to make you eat a salad instead?
Even economists and public health co-authors of a new economic modeling study disagree on the answer.
In a new analysis, researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading collaborated to see how implementing a tax on foods like red meat that produce more greenhouse gases could help the environment and improve people’s health. They found that adding a tax could change consumer behavior, but the authors disagree about what the research actually means in the real world.
For Adam Briggs, a public health researcher at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study, the findings suggest that putting a carbon tax on high emissions foods could be a positive for both the planet and the health of U.K. consumers. He conceded that the tax is unlikely to be popular in practice.