event 02 May 2018

Tax Policy // From Dragon to Janus: Exploring Tax Policy for the Water-Energy Nexus

By: Deborah Jarvie. This article presents a proposal from a substantial Canadian study that tax law holds the potential to play a major role in protecting the world’s finite fresh water supplies, without which, life on earth would not exist. Beyond the notion of ‘no water-no life’, many of today’s energy sources could not be produced without fresh water, and without energy, many of our social structures as they exist today would cease to exist.

Screen shot 2018 05 01 at 1 26 49 pm

Accessible fresh water (potable water) represents a miniscule portion of all of the water on earth. If the quantity and quality of this water deteriorate to a level that is insufficient for life sustaining purposes, the natural process of purification through the earth’s connected lakes, rivers, streams, and underground aquifer systems can take centuries or millennia to recharge. As we face ever-increasing demands on both water and energy production, these limits pose a real cause for concern.

About the author

Dr. Deborah Jarvie is a faculty member in the Dhillon School of Business at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, where she holds the CGA Faculty Fellowship in Accounting. Deborah has a PhD from the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University, an MSc in Management Studies and a BMgt in Accounting from the University of Lethbridge, a Professional Certificate in Watershed Management from Michigan State University, and she is a designated Chartered Professional Accountant, Certified General Accountant (CPA, CGA). Her research interests include environmental tax policy, socio-ecological and economic systems, the water-energy-food nexus, and systems science. Deborah’s PhD studied the role of environmental tax policy in innovation for groundwater resilience.

Download

Tax and Transfer Policy Institute website

Published

26 March 2018

In

The Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (TTPI)
Crawford School of Public Policy and ANU College of Asia & The Pacific
Australian National University

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