The green tax switch is shaping up to be the biggest campaign we have ever run as a party, and it is in an excellent cause. The time for talk on climate change is over, and the time for action has arrived.

We have one key message which could not be simpler on the doorstep. We should tax pollution not people. If we are to change our behaviour, it is the role of government to lead us collectively away from our dependence on fossil fuels. We need green taxes not to raise revenue for the state – taxes are high enough – but to switch off climate chaos.

By using green tax revenue to take the low paid out of income tax and cut 2 pence off the basic rate, we can nudge our society towards sustainability and strike a blow for fairness and social justice. How much each individual taxpayer saves will depend on their own behaviour. The greener we go, the more we save.

The green tax switch campaign has its own website on which local parties are reporting their activities during the October action week and beyond. We will have more than 125 street stalls the length and breadth of Britain, and it is not too late to organise one and add it to the website. We will be calling on the Government to tax pollution not people, and collecting signatures on a petition to the Prime Minister.

There are meetings and discussion groups organised throughout the country. For local opinion formers, some areas are holding a green tea. There will be more than 1 million leaflets – a Focus on climate change – going out to households across the land.

The campaign pack is free, and everything can be accessed through www.greentaxswitch.com. You can download material for focus. There is a mailing to Lib Dem supporters that can go out on its own or in another mailing, and the recent party political broadcast this week was on our green tax switch and its

“this is the biggest and best campaign we Liberal Democrats have ever run”

In short, this is the biggest and best campaign we Liberal Democrats have ever run. It is a campaign with strong and unique themes that can and should run all the way through to the general election.

The objective is to shift the environmental debate away from talk and onto practical solutions to the problem. The question is no longer whether we have a problem but how we solve it. And we can solve it.

We have already successfully tackled one enormous problem – the hole in the ozone layer – by outlawing chlorofluorocarbons. With politics changing across the world – including the United States and China – we can reach an international solution to humanity’s greatest threat.

Here in Britain, public opinion is shifting as the evidence of rising seal levels, storm damage and extreme weather events take their toll. To give just one example, the Thames Barrier has been lifted 55 times in the last five years against 12 times in the previous five.

All the parties are now agreed on targets, but if targets were the solution to problems this would be the best-run country in the world. With our campaign, we become the only party prepared to go beyond generalities and targets and talk about specific plans to change behaviour.

In the Liberal Democrat debate in the House of Commons on Monday 16th October, we set out our plans to raise duty on new gas-guzzling cars to £2000 a year. A steeply graduated duty will encourage 72 per cent of new car buyers to switch to greener new cars, according to MORI.

We also set out our plans to tax flight emissions not passengers, encouraging full planes. Our flight emissions tax would raise four times as much from flights – including freight flights – and mark a small step towards fair taxation for an industry where there is no VAT on tickets or duty on fuel.

These two green taxes are crucial because they affect the area where Britain’s carbon emissions have been growing most strongly. Transport emissions are up 18 per cent since 1990, whereas emissions in other sectors are down. If we do not tackle aviation, every part of our carbon allowance will be used up in flying around by 2050 with nothing left to heat our homes or drive our cars.

Our guarantee is that the extra tax revenue from green taxes will go back in lower income taxes, taking 2 million people out of income tax altogether, abolishing the first 10 pence starting rate of income tax, cutting 2 pence off the basic rate, and raising the threshold at which the higher rate starts from £38,000 to £50,000.

The green tax switch is just the start of the policy plans we have to tackle climate change, but it is the big and courageous political move that has left Labour and the Tories scrambling to catch up. Let’s get out and tell people that the Liberal Democrats are once again leading the debate on how to change our society and leave our children a planet worth living on.

Chris Huhne MP is the Liberal Democrats’ shadow environment secretary. You can find out more about Chris at http://chrishuhne.org.uk/