Author Archives: Julian Hawkins

I has been interested in environmental issues and active with the Lib Dems and predecessors since the 1970's, including a stint as a local councillor from 1990 to 1998. I like to cycle regularly and look forward to enjoying more of the British countryside - when ever I can find the time
Julian Hawkins

Tax carbon and reduce poverty

By Julian Hawkins | Wed 5th August 2020 - 11:45 am

The 2019 Autumn Conference approved a generally good Policy Motion F29 Tackling the Climate Emergency, listing actions which reduce UK emissions to net zero within a few decades. It included point 2d – “Greening the taxation system to make the polluters pay and to reward progress towards net zero.”

This appears to be a statement of intent rather than a genuine action point. I believe that we should go further, committing to a carbon tax designed to:

  1. reduce carbon emissions – globally
  2. fight poverty
  3. protect the UK economy against unfair competition from overseas polluters

This might sound a classic trilemma (three mutually incompatible goals), but one policy can deliver all three. Here’s how.

We currently have a mishmash of carbon pricing measures (Climate Change Levy, Fuel Duty, etc.) which affect specific sectors.

  • These only exert downward pressure on fossil fuel consumption in some sectors, and prices are generally too low to drive rapid reductions.
  • They are potentially regressive, impacting the poor more than the rich.
  • They risk carbon leakage – when emission reduction policies in one country lead to increases elsewhere.

The solution is a carbon tax, dividend and border adjustment.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
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