Citizens' Climate Lobby UK

Lobbying for a carbon fee and dividend

News

What Should We Ask For @ COP26?

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Our monthly national meeting, a few days ago, focussed on the question of what CCL-UK should be doing in the few weeks between now and COP26. We were fortunate to have Joe Robertson (who will lead the International CCL delegation at COP) on the call to give us his opinions on the matter. I think he gave all of us a lot to think about.

I was inspired by the meeting to write to my own MP who, by coincidence, has just been given a very junior government position which gave me an opportunity to write to congratulate him and then follow up with a request. What I asked was:

On another matter, I’d like to ask you to contact Alok Sharma as COP26 President. I understand that, whilst the UK holds the presidency, we are in a unique position to gently persuade other countries concerning the contents of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). As such, could Alok please suggest that all future NDCs contain carbon-pricing plans set above a floor-price as recently suggested by the IMF. As you are aware, a similar policy in the UK led to rapid demise of our coal-powered generating capacity and the associated rapid rise of offshore wind-power. This is frequently held up as an example, to the world, of how to move towards net-zero in an efficient and politically sustainable manner.

The idea is one step at a time. If we get countries to accept the idea of carbon pricing they will also, eventually, have to think about how to make such policies fair on the least well-off and that will, hopefully, give us an opportunity to suggest Climate-Income.

Incidentally, the IMF report referred to in my letter can be found here. It’s not exactly Carbon-Income but it’s a step on the way and they are quite right, I think, to say that an international carbon price floor could make border carbon adjustments unnecessary. That would help us sell Carbon-Income at home.

Feel free to borrow, alter or otherwise use my text above if you, too, now feel inspired to write to your MP. Lots of gentle pushes can build up to an irresistible force.

September meeting Tues 21st

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It’s only six weeks until COP26 – the postponed 2020 UN conference on climate change in Glasgow.

The chips are down to reduce emissions and save our liveable climate.

Of course there are all sorts of ways reduce emissions, but cutting out greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels will do a big chunk of the work.

In the September national monthly meeting (via Zoom), we will discuss what CCL will be doing at COP26 and then there’s help for those at the meeting to write an email (or letter, tweet, etc) to the COP president, Alok Sharma MP to ensure a worldwide price on fossil fuels is at the top of the agenda.

If you haven’t already done so, register for 2021 monthly meetings, here.

See you at 8pm, Tuesday 21st September.

Pictured: Dave Waltham in his COP ‘battle bus’

People are starting to talk – about carbon pricing

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On Saturday 14th August, 11-year-old Jude Courtney-Walker, arrived in Downing Street, having walked the 200 miles from Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, to bring the prime minister a petition about carbon pricing –  Carbon pricing??

Given that relatively few adults – even in government, even now – grasp the real significance of carbon pricing, how did it inspire a boy just finishing primary school to spend half his summer holiday walking to publicise it?

It seems he knows his future may depend on it….

Jude says he’s known about climate change ‘pretty much since the day I was born, ’ but what really got to him was a book called Dire Predictions.  This was not, as you might hazard a guess, a rip-roaring dark fantasy for young adults (let alone children), but an in-depth summary of the 2015 findings of the 5th IPCC Report (2015),  co-authored by noted scientist, Michael Mann.

It tells of what lies ahead, if fossil fuel emissions are not brought down: the rising seas, the failing food supplies, the floods, fires, droughts, resource wars…

But it also explains how that could be changed. “He came away saying that the two main things we need from the government are reforestation and carbon pricing,” said his mother, Sarah.  He said, “Why is nobody talking about carbon pricing?”

That’s what he was determined to change.

From This is Not a Drill, the XR handbook, he got the idea that the government only pays attention to things that happen in London, because that’s where the big businesses are.  Jude decided that he needed to start a petition about carbon pricing, and that’s when he came across the petition begun by ZeroC. asking the government for a debate on carbon pricing.

Jude decided to walk to London with this petition, talking to newspapers and politicians on the way. His parents wanted to support him, but what about their jobs – and where would he sleep at night?  But Jude was determined, and they were determined to support him, and they found a way – negotiating time off their jobs, managing to locate numbers of friendly people willing to offer a bed for the night, and eventually, at the last moment, finding an old camper-van for a support vehicle.  Off they went, with Jude walking 10 miles every day for the next 20 days.

Between them, they did attract the attention of the media, and they did get politicians involved. Dozens of articles appeared in local papers; both the BBC and Sky news featured him;  Ben Everitt, MP for Milton Keynes, walked with Jude in Ben’s constituency, Holly Lynch, MP for Halifax, met and walked with him in hers – and it was Baroness Jenny Jones who saw that his petition was personally  handed in to 10 Downing Street.

By August 17th, ZeroC’s petition, Price Out Pollution, had reached 108,802 signatures – considerably over-reaching its target – and will now be given a date for debate in Parliament.

Watch this space for the date.

Let’s make sure we can tell Jude that the people who matter are finally talking about carbon pricing!  

Judy Hindley, co-founder of CCL UK

Carbon Pricing and the Hydrogen Economy

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CCL does not advocate any particular technology or approach to decarbonising the UK’s economy. We simply propose to make fossil fuels more expensive so that alternatives (from loft-insulation to nuclear fusion) can thrive. So, you may think that this week’s announcement, by the UK government, of a strategy to promote development of hydrogen is not really of direct interest to us. I disagree because the associated government consultation is an opportunity for us to promote carbon pricing.

I should first say a few words about the hydrogen economy itself. Green hydrogen involves using excess renewable energy (e.g. from a windy afternoon in a sunny summer) to generate hydrogen gas by electrolysis of water. This is not a very efficient process but, as the alternative is to shut down expensive solar and wind farms, it’s a good way to use the spare power. The hydrogen can then be used for hard-to-decarbonize purposes such as heavy transport, ore-processing and space-heating. The hydrogen can even be stored and burned later in power stations to provide clean, backup electricity when renewable energy falls short of demand (e.g. on a calm winter’s evening).

Green hydrogen is not the only low-carbon route to this hydrogen economy. So called blue-hydrogen involves the, currently standard, hydrogen manufacturing technique of obtaining it from natural gas. The process produces carbon dioxide as a side product and this is currently just fly-tipped into the atmosphere. But it could be captured and permanently stored geologically. This is a cheaper way to make low-carbon hydrogen than hydrolysis but price-projections suggest this will no longer be true by 2030 because of the plummeting cost of renewable electricity.

In fact, those same price projections imply that, by 2050, green hydrogen should be cheaper than natural gas and cheaper than the coke currently used for smelting iron ore. If these price predictions are correct then the hydrogen economy is coming anyway, regardless of government policy or of carbon pricing.

However, decarbonisation from 2050 is simply too late. If the UK is to get to net zero by 2050, and if hydrogen is to be part of the journey, we need it to become economic much sooner. And that’s where carbon-pricing comes in. A back of an envelope calculation (see below) shows that hydrogen would be a cheaper energy source than natural gas if we have a carbon-price of £130/tonne CO2 in 2030. We could get to that by starting at £15/tonne next year and increasing it by £15/tonne each year.

Using hydrogen instead of coke for ore-processing comes to a similar conclusion. It’s going to be economic anyway by 2050 but, to make it economic in 2030, we need a carbon price. The price needs to be at least £50/tonne CO2. A price increase of £15/tonne every year would make green hydrogen better value than coke in the mid 2020s. Goodbye Cumbrian coalmine, hello Cumbrian solar-powered hydrogen plant?

 

**And here’s the back of an envelope**

School chemistry tells us that 1 tonne of CO2 is produced by burning 390 kg of methane. It also tells us that we could get the same amount of energy by burning 180 kg of H2.

Wholesale natural gas prices fluctuate a great deal but typical prices over the last few years have been around $10/MBtu. Furthermore, we need 21.5 kg of methane to generate 1 MBtu of heat and so these numbers imply methane prices are about $0.50/kg. Hence, one tonne of CO2 is produced by burning 390kg x $0.5/kg = $185 worth of natural gas.

Green hydrogen, on the other hand, currently costs about $3/kg although this price is expected to fall to $2/kg in 2030 and to $1/kg by 2050 (S&P Global, 2020). Thus, today, buying 180kg of hydrogen to replace the fossil energy associated with a tonne of CO2, would cost $540. However, this will fall to $360 in 2030 and to $180 by 2050.

Hence, to make hydrogen competitive with natural gas, in 2030, requires a carbon price of $360 – $185 = $175/tonne CO2. That’s about £130/tonne.

Dave Waltham

The chips are down! Alok Sharma calls for urgent action…

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Alok Sharma, President of COP26, has acknowledged the findings of the newly published  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) report, stating that the world will soon face “catastrophe” from climate breakdown if urgent action is not taken.

In the past few months, certain members of the UK Government, including Local Council officials, have seriously been discussing and considering a Carbon Fee and Dividend policy as implemented in British Columbia and Switzerland in 2008, and Canada in 2019.

Last year members of Citizens Climate Lobby UK, part of a worldwide organisation which campaigns for this form of carbon pricing, contributed to the BEIS consultation on The Future of UK Carbon Pricing. The subsequent report (p.38-39) acknowledged and recognised the merits of Carbon Fee and Dividend as a well-designed scheme having both social and environmental benefits, equitably distributing the revenues and stimulating investment in low carbon technologies.

Placing a price on carbon creates the incentive for emissions to be reduced in a cost effective and technology-neutral way, while mobilising the private sector to invest in emissions reduction technologies and measures.

It is now imperative that Alok Sharma and his team at the BEIS announce and bring in appropriate measures to adopt a Carbon Fee and Dividend policy in advance of the forthcoming COP26.

Our UK Government have already shown how quickly and professionally they can act during the current Covid outbreak to offer vaccinations to the entire population here in Great Britain.

Bold, effective and efficient action therefore needs to be urgently implemented and delivered to tackle Climate Change measures and Global Warming issues which are now being seriously acknowledged to be greater worldwide problems than the current pandemic. 

Now is as good a time as any for a follow up email to your MP – supporting Alok’s concern and the need for the UK as Presidency of COP 26, to adopt Climate Income and argue for it as  the fair and effective way to decarbonise on the world stage that is COP26.

Richard Day

Citizens Climate Lobby

13th August 2021

How to win Friends….

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About a fortnight ago we reported the success of the Citizen:mk campaign to ask Milton Keynes Council to commend a national policy based on Carbon Fee & Dividend (passed unaminously on July 14th). The CCL member who master minded the campaign, Rob Paton, is also a Member of Milton Keynes Quakers and has succeeded in getting the news as first item in this week’s national Quaker magazine, The Friend……

Rob Paton, of Milton Keynes Meeting, told the Friend: ‘Under this arrangement, fuel levies are paid back to citizens at a flat rate – so the wealthiest who use fossil fuels the most pay the most, while the less well off receive back more than the amount they pay in increased fuel prices.’ He added: ‘It’s vital to secure the buy-in of those citizens who are struggling to keep their families fed and housed, and who might otherwise become another generation of fuel tax protesters. Direct payments can secure their support in tackling the climate emergency.’ According to the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, many climate scientists and economists believe that the policy is ‘the fairest and most effective way of getting to zero carbon’.

What a brilliant reminder of the value of sending out a press release after any successful action, do take advantage of the fact that  journalists are ‘hungry’ for copy!

The Friend also reports on a ‘West Midlands Climate Assembly’….The assembly was billed to ‘connect with and beyond the climate movement, joining up with trade unions, faith groups, housing campaigners, anti-racist activists, LGBTQ campaigners, local community organisers and more’.  

It’s worthwhile keeping an eye out for such events happening near you, or helping to bring one about! They can be a great way to spread the word about Climate Income, especially if you can campaign for an endorsement of the policy at council level. Do watch the short video of part of the Milton Keynes council meeting for inspiration!

Photograph shows Campbell Park, Milton Keynes

 

Unaminous support for Climate Income at Milton Keynes Council

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Back in May one of our members, Rob Paton, wrote about submitting a motion to Milton Keynes Council that:

Within three months of taking office as Council Leader, will you commit to seeking all-party support for a Council resolution that commends a national policy based on Carbon Fee & Dividend; and meeting with us to discuss appropriate wording for this? 

We are happy to report that Milton Keynes Council has now voted unaminously for a motion to support the Climate Income Policy.  The press release states…

“COP us a bung, Boris!” –  Green City makes all-party call for bolder climate action before big UN conference.

Milton Keynes Council has voted unanimously for a motion  supporting higher fossil fuel prices linked to compensating payments to all adults. The Council will ask the government urgently to appraise how the idea of a carbon fee & dividend – already being implemented in Canada – could work in the UK. 

Under this arrangement, fuel levies are paid back to citizens at a flat rate – so the wealthiest who use fossil fuels the most pay the most, while the less well off receive back more than the amount they pay in increased fuel prices. 

Council Leader Peter Marland (Labour) commented: “ Milton Keynes was one of the very first councils to declare a climate emergency.  That was like setting off the fire alarm. This is a way for the country to tackle the source of the blaze.”

Deputy Leader Robin Bradburn (Lib Dem) stated: “ Milton Keynes has shown that, done the right way, realistic carbon pricing can gain cross-party approval.”  

Councillor Alex Walker, Leader of the Conservative group said: “ This idea is compatible with current government thinking  and definitely needs to be progressed.”

The motion was requested by the Climate Campaign team of  Citizens:mk

Rev Catherine Butt, of  St. Frideswide’s Church said: “Carbon fee and dividend offers a way for us all to pay realistically for the carbon we use, and for us to share equally the income generated. We have a wonderful opportunity to pursue a policy that preserves our precious environment and also positively addresses poverty and inequality. In the year of COP 26, it would be fantastic to see the UK commit to this approach.”

Rick Mutwarasibo, of  Christ the Cornerstone Church and one of the team said: .  “Young people like me will bear the brunt of the impending disasters. You may think transitioning to renewable energy sources and retrofitting premises for carbon neutrality is expensive.  But those costs are small compared to the costs of  fire, flood, food shortages and rising sea levels. Climate Fee & Dividend will drive decarbonisation.”

Rob Paton, of MK Quaker Meeting said “It’s vital to secure the buy-in of those citizens who are struggling to keep their families fed and housed and who might otherwise become another generation of fuel tax protesters.  Direct payments can secure their support in tackling the climate emergency.”

TEXT OF THE MOTION

the Climate Emergency – Carbon Fee and Dividend

Councillor Wilson-Marklew (15 June 2021)

  1. That this Council, having declared a Climate Emergency and its commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon negative by 2050, welcomes the recently published MK Sustainability Action Plan, but recognises wider carbon neutrality and meaningful climate action will require bolder national policies.
  1. That this Council notes:

(a) that stated current government policy is to reduce carbon emissions by 68% on 1990 levels by 2030;

(b) the deeply felt concerns of MK residents who are aware that national and international expert advisory bodies report that progress to date is insufficient to meet the global challenge on climate change by 2030; and

(c) the commitment given by each political group on Milton Keynes Council at the Citizens:MK Accountability Assembly in April 2021 to discuss the Carbon Fee and Dividend system as introduced in Canada and Switzerland.

  1. That this Council agrees:

(a) with the widely understood principle that polluters should pay for the damage they cause;

(b) on the importance of levelling up and of ensuring a solid social and political consensus to sustain the transition to a low carbon way of life;

(c) that Milton Keynes should continue as a leading green city; and

(d) that we wish to see the UK set an example to the world in the year that the UK hosts the United Nations climate change conference (COP 26).

  1. That this Council therefore resolves to:

(a) broadly support the principle of the Carbon Fee and Dividend system;

(b) call on HM Government to appraise the likely impacts of carbon pricing based on  this approach and publish the results; and

(c) ask the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for Business,

Energy and Industrial Strategy to express these views and ask that the work is undertaken prior to COP 26.

CCL UK congratulates Rob Paton for planning and carrying out this campaign and bringing it to a successful fruition! With the issue of carbon taxing being discussed by the media on an almost daily basis and being discussed by the Government why not seize the moment and consider approaching your local council for a similar declaration. As Rob said in May:

What might this mean for you as a CF&D activist where the situation is very different? Perhaps there are other existing groupings and networks you can work through. Might there be support for an all-party resolution in your Council? Ask to have coffee with someone who has some sort of standing, to seek their advice…

At the risk of sounding corny, nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come as can be seen on this recording!

A People’s Dividend would be welcome but transparency is preferred

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Citizens’ Climate Lobby UK statement regarding the Environmental Justice Commission Report July 2021

Citizens’ Climate Lobby welcomes the call for a People’s Dividend, as described in the citizens’ juries report by the cross-party Environmental Justice Commission and reported in The Guardian newspaper.

Fairness and the emphasis on nature, green spaces and clean energy are essential ingredients in mitigating climate change and protecting our liveable planet – and are rightly the focus of the report.

The proposed People’s Dividend recognises that carbon pricing is an important tool in reducing greenhouse gases, especially one which is charged when fossil fuels are extracted or imported rather than to the consumer when they fill their cars or turn on their heating. But it also recognises that a necessary high price would inevitably be passed down to the consumer – a mitigating payment would avoid potential financial hardship and political backlash by protecting households with vulnerable finances.

The example of Canada’s redistribution of a carbon revenue – the second time this week Canada’s carbon fee and dividend has been used as an example in a national policy proposal – shows that a transparent carbon price can be both effective, fair and trustworthy.

But there are important differences between the People’s Dividend and the simple Canadian-style carbon fee and dividend, backed by Citizens’ Climate Lobby International, and called Climate Income by Citizens’ Climate Lobby UK.

Important differences between a People’s Dividend and Climate Income

  • Climate Income is not generated by taxation. It is a fee charged to companies with the money collected returned equally to UK people, regardless of individual income or carbon footprint. Because the government would not keep any of it, but act as the administrator, it is a business fee.
  • This is an important difference because the process is completely transparent, inspiring confidence that the fee will be distributed as promised and not used for non-environmental spending as happens with, for example, fuel duty.
  • Climate Income bypasses arguments and avoids criticism over the best way to spend the money.
  • Climate Income corrects a deficiency in the market which favours fossil fuels – because the current carbon pricing does not fully take into account the polluting cost of fossil fuels – and then allows market forces to decide the most efficient and cost-effective method of providing clean energy, products and services. This avoids public investment and legislation into environmental ‘red herrings’ – apparently cleaner technology which turn out to be the same or worse than existing fossil fuel-based technology, such as with diesel cars.
  • At no cost to the public purse, Climate Income encourages confident investment in clean energy and clean energy technology. This will enable people to do the right thing because there will be more affordable low-emission, climate-friendly choices.
  • Climate Income rewards people with lower carbon-emitting lifestyles as they will keep more in dividends than they pay out in higher prices on fossil fuel-heavy products and services. When a high percentage of the carbon fee is recycled, rather than a selective grant, many more people will be better off and protected from rising prices. It is estimated that if 99 percent of the fee were given back to the people (with one percent retained for administrative costs), at least two thirds of the population would be better off. See this modelling by Professor David Waltham.
  • It tackles child poverty by paying half the adult dividend to each UK child.
  • It keeps administrative costs low by making equal payments to everyone without the costs of means testing, income thresholds or application processes required by grants.
  • A great deal of greenhouse gases would be reduced with no public spending with this policy alone – it is estimated by US modelling that greenhouse gases would be cut by 33 percent in ten years. This is supported by the results of the Canadian province of British Columbia, which has CF&D for more than ten years, and the Swiss version which focussed on home heating emissions.
  • A border carbon adjustment would ensure the UK’s emissions are not exported in overseas manufacture.

The Canadian-style policy – which recycles 90 percent of the carbon fee – is backed by hundreds of economists around the world such as Mark Carney, as well as environmental scientists such as Katherine Hayhoe and James Hansen, and activists such as Jonathon Porritt.

 

Some good stuff happened at the weekend!

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On Saturday G20 finance ministers endorsed carbon pricing for the first time as part of the tool bag needed to reduce emissions. Such tools include investing in sustainable infrastructure and new technologies to promote decarbonization and clean energy, “including the rationalisation and phasing-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption and, if appropriate, the use of carbon pricing mechanisms and incentives, while providing targeted support for the poorest and the most vulnerable,” 

On Sunday at the Venice International Conference on Climate, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, emphasised the importance of an ‘effective carbon price that reflects the true cost of carbon’. William D.Nordhaus, American economist and Nobel laureate, gave the keynote address at the conference, calling for a ‘climate club’ of countries willing to commit to a carbon price…’It is a painful, painful realisation, but I think we need to face it: Our international climate policy, the approach we are taking, is at a dead end,‘ referring to the annual COP climate summits. This seems to me to be a tacit acknowledgement that the approach based on NDCs and carbon trading, enshrined in the ETS system, is not achieving the required results. 

There was also further clarification of the announcement on UK carbon pricing made on Friday. The government had been due to publish its heat and building strategy next week but at a last minute meeting Boris Johnson was said to be concerned that it did not do enough to protect consumers and wanted further safeguards! The Heat and Buildings strategy has now been postponed until the autumn, perhaps they should have consulted Boris earlier.

In the Sunday Times, David Smith, the economics editor discussed a recent report by Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR): “The biggest increases in emissions in recent years, unsurprisingly, have been in China and India. This creates a political problem, rooted in the economics of net-zero. As the OBR puts it, the physical risks from global warming are “largely exogenous” – in other words, coming from outside this country – while the costs and risks are “endogenous”, to be borne at home. That is what makes it a challenge. It is one thing for the government to take on its share of the cost of decarbonisation, it is another to persuade the public to do so without very large incentives.”

We all need to seize the moment so the government doesn’t get cold feet – show them you endorse this sensible and just idea and history will approve. If you haven’t done so already do look at the campaign blog and get tweeting, emailing. FBing et al.

CCL UK response to the news of government discussions on carbon pricing.

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Citizens’ Climate Lobby UK strongly support the Government proposal to offset green energy bills with payouts as reported in The Times today. Boris Johnson has pledged to reach net zero without disproportionately imposing higher costs on customers. Earlier this week he had told MPS that…‘We’ve got to make sure that when we embark on this programme that we have a solution that is affordable, and that works for people….This government is determined to keep bills low and that is a priority’. 

A government spokesman said ‘This government is determined to keep bills low. As we’re already doing through the Renewable Heat Incentive, Energy Company Obligation and upcoming Clean Home Grant, we will use targeted measures to incentivise the people to switch to lower-carbon, more efficient heating systems, providing a transition that is fair, affordable and practical, whist enabling them to save money long-term. More detail on our approach will be provided in the heat and buildings strategy this year’. 

We are pleased that the Government understands the need for a just transition to net zero. Using a Climate Income policy will support householders and the economy.  Imposing a carbon price on emissions at source, will along with the government support already being offered, encourage manufacturers to decarbonise their processes and make Carbon Capture and Storage financially worthwhile. It will enable the reduction of the 40% of UK emissions generated by households whilst maintaining living standards by in most cases, as in the Canadian model, returning more money to low and middle income households than was spent.

Show your support – ideas, here.