CCL UK welcomes our government’s recent commitment to cut carbon emissions by 68 percent by 2030. This is a bold and achievable target, especially in the light of equivalent commitments by other industrialised nations.
The climate emergency is becoming more urgent by the day and we hope to see yet bolder commitments, in future, from our government and others.
We are heartened that responses to the climate emergency have become an increasingly cross-party issue as all of our leaders see the urgency. CCL is proposing a policy which will make meeting the target much easier and has potential for cross-party support. Our policy is for a Climate Income for citizens in the UK, funded by a fee on all carbon entering the economy, such as from the North Sea, imported fossil fuels or as embedded within imported products.
The fee will allow the market to take a vital lead in the innovation and investment required to decarbonise the economy, which will compliment government initiatives. The use of all the funds collected to provide a Climate Income to citizens will ensure a level of trust and popularity in the policy together with genuine fairness, as more than 60 percent of citizens, the least wealthy could gain from it.
This popularity and fairness will enable much bolder levels of carbon price than could be achieved by a traditional tax, as has been demonstrated in Canada and Switzerland. The ability to embed in imports will enable us to ‘offshore’ carbon reductions rather than ‘offshore’ carbon emissions.
The government has committed to ‘level up’ the northern regions and the CCL policy will will help achieve this by transferring billions of pounds per year, though confident ‘green industry’ investment, to such areas whilst enabling the UK to meet our new NDC (nationally determined contribution) to the UN Paris Agreement.
We give our support to the government and thoroughly recommend the Climate Income policy to them as a major policy initiative that could, on its own, achieve two thirds of the 68 percent reduction goal.