CANBERRA is bearing the brunt of the carbon tax, with typical households paying an extra $540 a year, new research shows.

The research, conducted by Ben Phillips, from the University of Canberra’s National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, has estimated that Canberrans will pay roughly $540 a year, which is the highest median impact and almost 80 per cent more than an average South Australian household.

In his research, Phillips says that “half the impact is electricity, gas and water, the other half is just everything else you buy… so the more you spend, the bigger your impact.”

“The two main drivers are that we have higher incomes so we spend more money, so that means we have a bigger carbon lifestyle, you could say,” he said.

“Beyond that, the energy we produce here is a little bit more emissive, so the pass through of the carbon price is a little higher in the ACT.”