AND governments must be realizing that the “carbon” boogieman isn’t as sustainable in the long run as a generic “environment” tax.
The carbon and air pollution taxes would target mostly the same sources, and in difficult economic times China is wary of hitting companies with too many costly regulations.
China has spent the last decade chasing and securing contracts for fossil fuel supplies specifically to fuel economic growth.
China has several billion people that want good paying jobs and China’s leadership know that carbon based fuels like oil and coal are what fuel economic growth. Cheap transportable BTU dense fuel is necessary for a growing economy.
Carbon Taxes are designed specifically to punish the use of these cheap easily accessible and easily transportable energy sources.
If tax income is the goal then a general environment tax would be as Zhu said easier to push through because it would have less impact on the production side of the economy. But from the ideological environmentalist perspective it would not produce the desired result of stunting economic growth.