The Zero Carbon Campaign (ZCC) is about as different from CCL as two organisations, with similar aims and acronyms, can get. Both organisations campaign for carbon pricing and both organisations have concluded that a carbon-dividend is vital to ensure fairness and effectiveness. But CCL is a grass-roots band of citizens whilst ZCC was set up by the founder of OVO Energy and is a commission of experts (including a former chair of the Climate Change Committee and the current executive director of Greenpeace UK). This is not a criticism of ZCC; there’s strength in diversity.
In September 2020, ZCC published its “White Paper”—a report on How Carbon Pricing Can Help Britain Achieve Net Zero By 2050. There’s much in there for CCL to cheer including a call for the UK government to announce “a clear carbon-price trajectory”, to use the proceeds to “cushion rises in household bills” and to “investigate options for a multilateral border carbon adjustment”.
ZCC is not advocating 100% revenue recycling into a dividend, as CCL does, but this should not stop us making common cause with an organisation whose aims have far more similarities than differences with our own. The publication of the White Paper is also an opportunity for us to publicise “climate income” and CCL-UK as an advocate for that policy.
So what happens next? ZCC are asking the public (and organisations) to sign their declaration and to lobby MPs (sounds familiar!) They’re also planning a media campaign to pressure the government to adopt carbon pricing ahead of COP-26 in Glasgow. This will be centred around a “mock COP” to run in the second week of November this year, i.e. a year ahead of the real COP. These are all things we, in CCL, would support or are already doing.
I’ve been asked, by CCL’s steering group, to keep an eye on developments and to involve CCL where appropriate. I’ll try to keep you all up to date and please feel free to contact me, through the comments below, if you want to be involved too.
