Media coverage of the GFC Final Report launch

26/10/09

The Sunday Times highlights the findings of the Green Fiscal Commission’s final report, to be launched today at Portcullis House by Professor Paul Ekins and Robert Napier. The article describes the benefits of doubling the proportion of green taxes from the current 7% and the importance of offsetting these rises with cuts to income tax and National Insurance contributions. It describes the report’s findings as a raft of ‘eco-taxes’ aimed at curtailing activities, of both individuals and businesses, that use natural resources or create pollution. Read the article…

The Press Association reiterates that the report does not intend to offer a specific package of recommendations for action, but models a variety of options for an eco-tax system of the future. Read the article…

The Guardian highlights Greenpeace’s response to the report, which supports green taxes as ‘one of the critical planks in tackling climate change…although a key thing is to ensure that we safeguard social justice’. The article highlights that the report has cross-party support, including the shadow climate change secretary, Greg Barker’s, comment that the Conservatives would consider the report recommendations seriously… 

The Daily Mail and Express focus more on the risk of placing additional burdens on motorists and the adverse implications for the car manufacturing industry. SKY News,  however, highlights that these measures are needed to drive the transformation to a low carbon society and that other European countries are already leading the way in this regard.

N.B. Some newspaper reports have inaccurately reported that Lord Adair Turner (Chair of the Committee on Climate Change) is launching the report findings. Lord Turner will take part in a panel debate to take place tonight, in order to respond to the report’s findings, alongside other representatives, but Lord Turner has not contributed to the content of the report, either in his position as Chair of the Committee on Climate Change or as Chair of the Financial Services Authority.

Six million new jobs and we meet our carbon targets

Six million new jobs could be created across the EU – an increase in employment of 2.7 per cent – if a programme of green fiscal reform was introduced. A green tax shift would also enable the EU’s carbon dioxide reduction targets to be met.

This was the message from new research presented at a major international conference held in London on 15th and 16th July organised as part of the Anglo German Foundation’s PETRE project in conjunction with the Green Fiscal Commission.

Commenting on the research findings the conference chair, Professor Paul Ekins, said, “This research shows that a really strong programme of green fiscal reform across Europe will benefit the economy as well as reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It is not clear that Europe’s targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions can be met without such a tax shift, but achieving them in a way that also increases employment makes the arguments for this policy absolutely compelling.”

 The conference also presented evidence to show how a green tax shift can increase innovation in key environmental industries, and give results for its impacts on countries outside Europe. The conference concluded with a discussion of  the political issues related to the implementation of the green tax shift with MPs from the major political parties.

Presentations from the conference will be made available shortly on the Green Fiscal Commission and PETRE project websites. The final report from the PETRE project with full details of the research will be launched in October.

GFC Distributional Stakeholder Engagement Event

On 12th January 2009, the Green Fiscal Commission organised a Distributional Engagement Event to explore how a green tax shift may affect older people, the poor and those on low incomes in rural areas, and to consider how these concerns may be addressed. Representatives from a number of a number of organisations attended, including The Countryside Alliance, National Farmers’ Union, National Energy Action, Help the Aged/Age Concern, Oxfam UK, Child Poverty Action Group, Action for Children, RAC Foundation, Consumer Focus, Trades Union Congress, Friends of the Earth Scotland, together with academics working in the field from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Environmental Change Institute, Open University, London School of Economics, Policy Studies Institute and King’s College London.