Letter: Richard Murphy and Colin Hines suggest a number of ways that revenue could be raised to fund energy efficiency in all buildings, renewables and local transport systems. The counter to Larry Elliott’s gloomy economic projections for 2019 is to be found in his earlier article making the case for countries to put their economies on an “environmental war footing”. To deliver this will, however, require that people be convinced that they will benefit and that there is the money to pay for such a transformation. This funding can be raised in a number of ways. One way is to make clear that this is an emergency and to tap private savings via “green war bonds”. Another mechanism would be to improve tax collection: the UK still has a tax gap of many tens of billions a year. We could also increase taxes on the wealthy, with this having the added benefit of tackling increasing inequality, which is fuelling the rise of populism. And we could also use quantitative easing to fund the transition to a sustainable economy.
Guardian 3rd Jan 2019 read more »
