Impuesto al CO2 en el sector eléctrico chileno: efectividad y efectos macroeconómicos

Abstract

Chile has an international commitment to a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions by the year 2030. Because the electricity sector contributes 42% of total emissions, the country has recently introduced a CO2 tax of US$5 per ton emitted. However, there is no estimate of the effect this policy will have on emissions and other economic variables, nor if the tax rate is sufficient. To address these concerns, an environmental extension of the Leontief price model is developed. The results show that a 20 times higher tax rate than the Chilean proposal is needed to reduce emissions to the required levels, which would also generate a significant increase in the price of electricity and the CPI.