Tag Archives: carbon pricing

Would you consider supporting the civil society advisers’ ask on carbon pricing to the G7?

By Catherine Dawson | Sun 12th June 2022 - 4:57 pm

On the 8th June an Environmental Audit Committee session heard that “To meet 1.5C, we need to think about the impact of our production in the global context. 60 % of oil and gas reserves globally need to stay in the ground. For the UK, we need to see a 6-7% reduction in production annually.” Michael Lewis, Chairman of E.on, stated that insulating 19 million houses would save the equivalent energy output of 6 nuclear power stations, and tweeted that putting solar panels on new-build houses was a ‘no brainer’. What we don’t need is new oil and gas field developments – was COP26 that long ago?

There has been growing acknowledgement worldwide that there is a need for a globally applied carbon pricing policy which would show the true cost of fossil fuel reliance and which, by gradually pricing fossil fuels out of the mix, would facilitate the implementation of renewable energy and carbon sequestration. Calls for such a policy came from the IMF last year. A recent paper in Nature and report by the Autonomy think tank have shown how a carbon pricing policy such as Climate Income in which the revenue is returned equally to the populace as a dividend, if applied globally, would benefit the Global South.

The civil society advisers to the G7 are now adding to the call for comprehensive and just carbon pricing. Citizens’ Climate Lobby International has a useful summary of the various requests and a petition to ask the G7 to heed the call of its civil society advisers. Please consider adding your name and disseminating.

Business forums at COP26 revealed what company bosses need from carbon pricing to facilitate decarbonisation – and it is not ETS!

By Catherine Dawson | Wed 1st December 2021 - 10:25 am

The recent Sustainable Innovation Forum 2021 and Hydrogen Transition Summit revealed that business leaders want to decarbonise but are held back by the lack of price ambition and predictability of the Emissions Trading Systems (ETS) carbon pricing regime. They argued for an economy wide, strong, predictable, preferably global, carbon price to facilitate decarbonisation, ….”The best (thing) governments can do to promote hydrogen is a global carbon tax” Seifi Ghasemi Chairman, CEO and President of Air Products.

The management consulting company Roland Berger advocates a high carbon price to render decarbonisation cost effective, at a level only currently found in Sweden and Switzerland (alongside ETS, with Climate Income in Switzerland). Stefan Schaible, Global Managing Partner, Roland Berger, stated that COP26 had been as he expected, not the lowest or the highest step in the right direction. There was however, a step change in opinion on the environment, (the German government even includes Green Party members!) so there is continuing pressure to reduce emissions targets……“We need action. We cannot go on like this for certain sectors such as energy and transport. Only with carbon at $100 per tonne will profits shrink dramatically or even halve so they (the industry sectors) have to move”.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged business, climate change, COP26 and envorinoment | 25 Comments

Come to our Lib Dem Voice fringe at lunchtime!

By Kirsten Johnson | Sat 14th September 2019 - 8:11 am

Lib Dem Voice is sponsoring a fringe event (yes, free food!) from 1:00 – 2:30 today at the Highcliff Marriott, Bournemouth, in the Dorchester North room.

Focussing on climate change, our panellists will be asked “What sacrifices are you prepared to make for the planet?”

We have Ed Davey, MP, now Deputy Leader of the party, coming to give his ideas of policy areas that could help shift society’s habits. Joining him will be Baroness Cathy Bakewell, our Lib Dem Lords Spokesperson for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Luke Murphy, Head of IPPR’s Environmental Justice Commission; Paul Sheeky from Extinction Rebellion; and Mark Campanale of the Carbon Tracker Initiative.

There will be lots of time for questions to our panellists – and also the opportunity to give your own ideas of what sacrifices you would be willing to make to save our planet.

Please come and be part of the discussion. I hope to see you there!

Posted in Conference | Also tagged climate change, environment, extinction rebellion, ippr and zero carbon | 1 Comment

Opinion: How the market will decide our energy future

By Simon Oliver | Fri 12th August 2011 - 9:49 am

Recently articles from both the TUC and CBI have bemoaned the burden of increasing energy costs on energy intensive businesses. Both organisations make the rather obvious error in thinking that a carbon price will inevitably drive the cost of energy upwards. In fact, the opposite is true. The stronger the price signal, the faster the market works to balance supply with demand.

The supply of fossil fuels is finite. Conventional oil has already peaked its supply (as admitted by the chief economist of the IEA) and tar sands and fracking are far too damaging to the environment to continue as …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged chris huhne, energy and fossil fuels | 25 Comments