Taxing Carbon, Framing Responsibility: How Framing, Licensing and Beliefs Shape Individual Responsibility under Carbon Taxes

This paper challenges the Pigouvian framing of carbon taxation as a neutral corrective tool, arguing that carbon pricing also reshapes how individuals understand their responsibility in the climate crisis. The paper synthesises four critiques -moral licensing, framing distortions, dampening effects, and endogenous preferences -showing how carbon pricing can displace or erode moral responsibility. In response, it introduces a distinction between accordant responsibility, defined as behavioural alignment with external incentives, and procedural responsibility, grounded in moral reflection and autonomous commitment. It challenges the view that price signals alone can engineer moral agency and argues for policies that sustain ethical commitments.