Most pollution, especially air and water pollution, is caused by industry. If we want to protect the environment, we should make factories and other forms of industry pay of all the pollution that they cause. That is the only way to make sure that the owners will make a serious effort to reduce the pollution that they cause. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Although some believe that taxing manufacturing units alone can act as a reliable medium of coaxing them to switch to greener technologies, this is highly questionable: it is prone to failure. I believe there are more potent tools of convincing manufacturers to act.
Those advocating environmental tariffs found their argument on the assumption that this move would make the produce expensive, and thus uncompetitive, forcing organizations to spring into action and embrace eco-friendly methods. However, these enthusiastic lobbyists conveniently disregard an infallible fact that the pollution is not the outcome of an isolated exception, but the industry as a whole, and every manufacturer will espouse evasive strategies. They will compromise with the quality and quantity, and shift the extra burden to the end users, turning the policy ineffective.
Nevertheless, the need of the hour is to find remedies that can produce tangible outcomes rather than just doing lip service. It is essential to engage businesses by making them partners in the endeavors aimed at ensuring a sustainable environment, and this goal can be achieved if they are made stakeholders in research projects that target discovery of environmentally-friendly fuels, manufacturing techniques, and waste disposal policies.
Similarly, affording monetary stimulus, in the form of tax holidays and rebates, subsidies and support funding, can do wonders in convincing companies to take ownership, and make efforts to phase out old unsustainable and unviable technologies and equipment, and replace them with environmentally-sound procedures and processes. This system has been welcomed by industrialists in countries like China and Germany, for it is a persuasive rather than a punitive measure.
In hindsight, taxation is likely to encourage the industry to resort to unfair means, but partnering with them, besides extending financial inducements, will provoke honest and devoted efforts for environmental protection.