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Coal consumption will not go down if Australia stops exporting coal. It's a fungible commodity. Whoever uses Australia coal would just move to another source if prices are increased to pay for the unreleased carbon.

If you cannot ensure a consumer is affected, it won't change consumption (which is what we want).

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Well, that's why you have a global international treaty treating all producers the same, so they all have to pay the same carbon cost per ton of carbon exports. They can pass the cost onto the consumer in the form of higher prices, or they can absorb it themselves (reducing profit margins).

It's also just easier to do the accounting on the producer-exporter side.

Sure, if you can somehow get all producers on board, that would be the simplest. If you cannot get all producers to play by the same rules, you are going to have to examine the consumption side as well.

So far the nations of the world have not shown such a unified stance.

Most realistic and effective solution will be to get the biggest producers and consumers to all agree to join the system, whilst at the same time agreeing to place tarrifs on trade with those that won't join.

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