Politics in the real world is hard. As an international organisation working to influence politicians and policy makers across the globe Citizens’ Climate Lobby understand the pressures, even in countries where Climate Income is established like Canada and Switzerland. It is not our place to discuss and speculate on the decision of Labour to drop the 28 billion climate spending pledge, this statement given by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in an interview with the Guardian explains their reasoning….

“We cannot properly fund our public services and put more money in people’s pockets without economic growth, and we cannot grow our economy without investing in Britain’s future. That is why our green prosperity plan remains central in our mission to grow the economy and deliver clean power by 2030, and will be a central plank of our manifesto. It will lead to tens of billions of pounds of private sector investment in green hydrogen, carbon capture, clean steel, renewable-ready ports and gigafactories unlocked through a new national wealth fund that will create half a million good, well-paid jobs…None of us could have predicted the damage the Conservatives would do when they crashed the economy…It is not the inheritance we would have chosen, but it is the inheritance we will face if we are elected. It means we will not be able to announce additional investments under the green prosperity plan.”

Climate Income would go a long way in resolving this dilemma. Climate Income would provide revenue from a carbon price rather than taxation or borrowing. Redistributing this revenue to householders, coupled with the predictable and steadily rising cost of fossil fuels and other government incentives (grants for EVs and retrofitting) would encourage industry to decarbonise and middle and higher income families to decarbonise their homes and transport, as is described in a Canadian report.

CCL UK already has a study produced at the height of the Cost of Living crisis which explains the effect Climate Income could have in the UK. It is the fair, redistributive and economically prudent way to decarbonise.