News

Carbon taxes that only benefit the well-off will fail at the ballot box. Tax policy in Britain is both remarkably effective and, at the same time, a mess. It is effective insofar as taxation raises an extraordinary amount of money. More than £630 billion was levied in 2019-20. However, it is also a mess as new taxes have largely been introduced by political opportunism rather than using any clear strategy. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the way the UK taxes carbon. An uneven patchwork of taxes and subsidies leaves a rather muddled set of incentives to reduce carbon usage from all parts of our life. If the UK is to have any chance of going net zero by 2050 then this must change.

Times 2nd Aug 2021 read more »

Keir Starmer: Britain could be taking the lead in tackling the climate crisis. Where’s the ambition? This is a test of the prime minister’s ambition for “global Britain”. Based on the government’s actions so far, or lack of, it’s implausible that this ambition will be met. In 2015, the Paris agreement achieved unprecedented global commitments. Paris defined the “what”; an agreement at Glasgow is now needed to supply the “how”. Paris set the collective ambition to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This now needs to be translated into concrete action, coupled with an unequivocal promise to deliver. Time is short and history will not forgive a failure to act now. Yet at this vital moment, Boris Johnson is missing in action, while his climate spokesperson is busy advising people to freeze their leftover bread. When the issues at stake are so large it really is irresponsible for the response to be so small. This is a challenge that encompasses diplomacy, economics, finance, and targeted investment. A credible government now would be demonstrating serious ambition. Look at President Biden in the United States, who says that when people talk about climate, he thinks about jobs, and who has a plan for green investment. Labour has the same ambition. We have a plan to support jobs while cutting the substantial majority of our emissions by the end of this decade. But we need to act immediately. The Office for Budget Responsibility points out that acting early could mean we need an average of annual investment of just 0.4% of national income between now and 2050. The first step in that ambition should be a £30bn investment in a green recovery from the pandemic. That investment would create hundreds of thousands of secure jobs across the whole country. It would ensure that we buy, make and sell more in Britain. We would be rejuvenating our car industry while helping it move to the production of electric cars. We would be powering our homes with offshore wind turbines built in Britain and we would be manufacturing clean steel to build our schools, hospitals and railways. Labour would pass a Clean Air Act to improve the air we breathe and the water in our rivers. Every decision we made – from spending to infrastructure – would have to pass a robust “net zero and nature test”, to make it consistent with our environmental ambitions.

Guardian 3rd Aug 2021 read more »

Sir Keir Starmer has committed Labour to the ambitious climate crisis target of achieving the “substantial majority” of greenhouse gas emission cuts by 2030. The Labour leader’s previous reluctance publicly to reaffirm the pledge inherited from Jeremy Corbyn had sparked fears among climate activists that he was backing away from radical action on global warming, with 20 leftist MPs writing last year to urge him to readopt the Green New Deal approved by the party in 2019. But in an exclusive interview with The Independent, Starmer said the party’s commitment to the promise – effectively putting the UK on the path to net zero 20 years ahead of Boris Johnson’s 2050 target – was as strong now as ever.

Independent 3rd Aug 2021 read more »

Governments around the world are “hiding behind unreliable, unproven and unrealistic carbon removal schemes” and failing to meaningfully cut use of fossil fuels, a damning new assessment has warned. The sudden rush to adopt so-called “net zero” targets has not been met with sufficient action to bring down fossil fuel usage, and instead is dependent on offsetting carbon, either through planting trees, or through as yet unproven carbon capture and storage technology, the report from Oxfam warns.

Independent 3rd Aug 2021 read more »

Polly Billington: A report by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that if greenhouse gases are not sufficiently curtailed, GDP would be cut in every country in the world – rich or poor, hot or cold. The impact would be a cut to UK GDP of 4 per cent, and by contrast there would be a small economic benefit of 0.11 per cent for keeping within the Paris Climate Agreement targets. Our major economic partners would be even harder hit: France’s GDP would fall by 5.8 per cent and the US by 10.5 per cent, due to impacts like extreme weather and reduced productivity. In contrast, research by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) showed that if you invest at the levels required for net zero, you will save the economy billions long-term. For instance, it might cost £13bn to invest in cleaner transport, but it would save £39bn by 2050. This is before you calculate the benefits to the NHS and social care budgets of better insulated homes, cleaner air and healthier lifestyles. There are huge economic opportunities from net zero if we grasp the nettle early. One example is regarding natural gas, of which the UK imports half of what it uses. Every year, we spend nearly £8bn on gas imports. Imagine if we spent that on installing zero carbon heating systems which could be made in Britain? Research shows that the cost of heat pumps could be halved by investing in UK manufacturers, with the costs becoming similar to boilers. Increasing our island’s independence, creating good jobs and protecting our homes. This requires leadership, in the form of shaping a procurement strategy, giving investors confidence and backing British supply chains.

Independent 3rd Aug 2021 read more »

Ofgem has been slammed as it prepares to give energy suppliers the green light for a crippling increase in bills. The watchdog is expected to say on Friday it will raise a price cap for 15 million customers by around £150 a year. The 13% surge, which starts in October as temperatures drop, will be blamed on higher wholesale costs. But the rise – from £1,138 to around £1,288 a year – will be devastating for those already struggling to make ends meet. It is likely to renew focus on the role of Ofgem, whose £121million of spending last year was funded by suppliers. Chief executive Jonathan Brearley raked in more than £300,000 in pay and perks last year, with fellow bigwigs sharing more than £2.4million.

Mirror 2nd Aug 2021 read more »