Citizens' Climate Lobby UK

Lobbying for a carbon fee and dividend

News

March meeting: How to engage local councillors

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Speaker Kevin Frea (Climate Emergency UK), Tuesday 16th March, 8pm

With local elections coming up, how do we engage local councillors in climate action?

Some have asked: should we focus our action on local councils? Although MPs directly have influence on national policy (and we are asking for a national policy on greenhouse gas emissions) local councillors have a pre-existing relationship with their MP, and also you never know where it will go:-

  • A town council decided to look at their own environmental impact after a talk about climate income
  • A councillor of a small parish said they could be a conduit for national initiatives and grants between government and parish residents
  • Amber Valley Borough Council (Derbs) and Lewes Town Council (E Sussex), have joined Barcelona and Vancouver in signing the Fossil-Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty  

Kevin Frea, deputy leader of Lancaster City Council and coordinator of Climate Emergency UK, will be talking to us about local councils and what they can do, especially after declaring a climate emergency.

See also our latest campaign to get a climate summit in every county, involving MPs and local councillors.

To join, if you haven’t already done so, register for the 2021 national monthly meetings, here.

The House of Commons Environment Committee Report endorses the need for a Carbon tax as does the UN, again…..

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On the 17th February the Environmental Audit Committee produced its third report for the session 2019 -21, entitled: Growing back better: putting nature and net zero at the heart of the economic recovery.  Summaries and the full report (PDF) are available from the website linked above. It doesn’t pull any punches! ….

The cross-party EAC warns that if the economic recovery from covid-19 is not used as an opportunity to ‘grow back better’, climate change and biodiversity collapse may deliver an even greater crisis.

While the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution points in the right direction, it is not yet investible and underlying strategies need to be published rapidly to give industry confidence. The report calls for the Government to front-load its investment in areas such energy efficiency, the circular economy, climate adaptation and nature recovery, to counter rising unemployment by creating green jobs. The EAC heard that this investment will provide economic multipliers in terms of jobs and improved productivity and will offer wider benefits such as cleaner air and warmer homes.

Infrastructure invested in now will be in use for decades to come. It is essential that all decisions on infrastructure investment comply with the UK’s air quality, biodiversity protections and climate change commitments.

In  section 4 Fiscal and financial incentives for a green recovery, pp 59-71, the report quotes Stephen Fitzpatrick, CEO of OVO Energy, on the equitability of a CF&D policy. The report recommends that ….

The Government should begin scoping work on a carbon tax to incentivise low-carbon changes across the whole economy. One of the most economically efficient ways to incentivise low-carbon choices would be through the introduction of an economy-wide carbon tax. We recommend that the Government investigate the merits of carbon border adjustments, to accompany work on a carbon tax, as one way of addressing carbon leakage. We recognise this would also require measures to ensure that such policies do
not adversely impact developing countries.

Below is the list of the EAC committee members. If you are in a member’s constituency why not write and congratulate them on all their hard work and discuss why you think CF&D would be such a useful and equitable fiscal tool in the fight to build back better! Don’t forget the new Helpdesk is here to help with any letter writing issues!

EAC Committee Members:

Chair Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP  Conservative  Ludlow
Duncan Baker MP  Conservative North Norfolk
Sir Christopher Chope MP Conservative Christchurch
Feryal Clark MP  Labour  Enfield North
Barry Gardiner MP  Labour  Brent North
Rt Hon Robert Goodwill MP Conservative  Scarborough and Whitby
Ian Levy MP  Conservative  Blyth Valley
Marco Longhi MP Conservative Dudley North
Caroline Lucas MP Green Party Brighton, Pavilion
Cherilyn Mackrory MP Conservative Truro and Falmouth
Jerome Mayhew MP Conservative Broadland
John McNally MP Scottish National Party Falkirk
Dr Matthew Offord MP Conservative Hendon
Alex Sobel MP Labour Leeds North West
Claudia Webbe MP Independent Leicester East
Nadia Whittome MP Labour Nottingham East

To check which constituency you are in and to find information on MPs look at https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mps/

On the 18th February the first United Nations Environmental Programme synthesis report was released,  Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies states that…..

Shifting taxation from production and labour to resource use and waste promotes a circular economy. Potential inequalities resulting from this shift can be offset through social safety nets….

The time is definitely now!

 

 

 

 

How can we avoid the Yellow Vest?

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Monthly meeting: Tuesday 16th February, 8pm

Back in France, in 2018, fed up with the double hit of rising prices and taxes on petrol and diesel, protestors took to the streets. They wore high vis jackets, or gilets jaunes, something which French drivers are required to keep in their vehicles by law, and made international news.

The taxes to which they objected aimed, in part, to address climate change.

Their response was a grassroots and popularist movement based on economic justice rather than opposition to carbon taxes.

As we advocate a carbon fee at CCL the reaction in France is very relevant and makes the dividend aspect of our policy critical to avoid a UK version of the yellow vest.

Can CCL make a populist movement work for Climate Income, rather than against it?

Adrien FabreAdrien Fabre (CCL France) previously from the Paris School of Economics (and the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), and now ETH Zurich, has researched this and will be our guest at the next national monthly meeting.

Adrien has a background in research on public attitudes to climate change and the policies required to address it.

If you haven’t already signed up to 2021 monthly national meetings, register here.

James Hansen writes to Boris and suggests he talks to CCL UK!

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James Hansen has written a letter to Boris, which has been published in an article in the Guardian, ,asking that he set an example to the world at COP 26 by taking the lead on fighting climate change through the implementation of carbon fee and dividend:

Why has such a policy not been adopted in the United States? Many congress
people in the US are well-oiled, coal-fired and full of gas. Fee-and-dividend scares
the bejesus out of the fossil fuel industry. But it need not be their kryptonite,
because far-thinking companies can retool and invest in both carbon-free energy and
negative emissions technologies.
Thus, one leader with the courage to take on the special interests could change the
world’s energy course and alter the future for young people and other life on the
planet. Where may we find such a leader?

James then suggests that Boris talks to CCL UK and PlanB.Earth. Among other fantastic outcomes (hopefully) from this letter it gives CCL a far bigger public profile and is a great opportunity  to talk about CF&D to other organisations and the media.

NB for a link to the letter please see David Waltham’s blog: Jim Hansen’s letter to the PM, my techy skills (barely existent) are failing me!

Catherine Dawson

CCL UK reaction to emissions reduction target

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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.

UN secretary general says ‘put a price on carbon’

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At Columbia University on the 2nd of December Antonio Guterres gave a hard hitting speech on The State of the Planet, and what nations have to do to avoid climate crisis, poverty and war. This included carbon pricing:


Put global finance to work for climate

The commitments to net zero emissions are sending a clear signal to investors, markets and finance ministers. But we need to go further.  It is time to put a price on carbon. To phase out fossil fuel finance and end fossil fuel subsidies. To stop building new coal power plants. (It is time) to integrate the goal of carbon neutrality into all economic and fiscal policies and decisions. And to make climate-related financial risk disclosures mandatory.

In UK news Boris Johnson has now set a target (NDC for Paris Agreement) of a 68% reduction of carbon emissions (from 1990 levels) by 2030, increasing the proposed reduction from 57%. He hopes to encourage other countries to follow suit when he hosts the Climate Ambition Summit along with Macron and Guteres on the 12th December. Even if this cut is achievable, given that the 10 point plan is, among other flaws, not even demanding carbon neutral housing standards, environmentalist and social justice campaigners are arguing for a 72-75% cut.

Ed Matthew, a Cop26 co-director for the Climate Coalition responded to the proposals by saying that :

“This is important progress but not sufficient. A more ambitious cut is both feasible and necessary to keep us safe, and reflect our massive historic carbon emissions. We must remember, too, that the climate will not respond to targets, it will respond to carbon cuts. It is action that counts.”

One factor which is said to hamper a more ambitious target is that the Treasury is concerned about the effect of emissions cuts on consumers, this despite the fact that the Government is fully aware of carbon pricing policies whch would not penalise the consumer such as the Carbon Fee and Dividend approach to carbon pricing, as shown in the Future of Carbon Pricing Report, June 2020, pp.38-30.

The UN has also published 2020 The Production Gap Report, which reveals that the pandemic has caused nations to plan fossil fuel production increases of 2% pa and to give double the amount of recover funding to fossil fuels than to renewables. In The Executive Summary of the report the UN states that governments must reduce existing government support for fossil fuels and introduce restrictions on fossil fuel production activities and infrastructure.

 

Kids’ animation about carbon tax gets nearly 1 million views

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Spreading the word about climate change and carbon taxes – with cartoons

CCL member Zeeshan Hasan writes about creating successful cartoon for kids…about carbon tax

In the beginning of 2016, I was living in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I had been reading books about climate change for a number of years and and had written articles about it in local newspapers (available on my blog). My brother Zahin and I were both shareholders of Deepto TV, a local cable TV channel, and were thinking about how to spread the word about climate change and the need to implement carbon taxes to stop it.

My brother had previously founded and run ToonBangla, a Bangladeshi animation studio which had produced a short film, Attack Of The Mutant Killer Chickens, before shutting it down a few years earlier. However, he knew that the senior animator, Mohammad Shihab Uddin, was still in Dhaka doing freelance work. He proposed that we work on a short animated film to teach schoolchildren in Bangladesh about climate change and carbon taxes.

After thinking about it for a while, I suggested that we adapt the story of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The basic problem was communicating that everyone had to change many things about their lives, and governments especially had to change their policies around fossil fuel use and taxation.

Dickens’ story successfully managed to show how Ebenezer Scrooge could change himself as a result of meeting the ghosts of Christmas; we came up with a similar story in which a young boy in Bangladesh, Ratul, would be shown visions by a supernatural figure whom we called Old Man Wind. As a result of these visions he would become a climate change activist and participate in a global movement to stop climate change.

We worked with Deepto TV screenwriters for almost a year editing various drafts of the screenplay. There was a lot of information to convey, as we couldn’t assume any prior knowledge on the part of our audience, and had to cover the basic science of how burning coal, oil and gas produced carbon dioxide which trapped the sun’s heat and warmed the planet.

The protagonist Ratul was shown terrible visions of a future where southern districts of Bangladesh were flooded by rising sea levels, and northern districts were desertified as melting Himalayan glaciers cut off the water supply on which the country’s rivers depended. We mentioned carbon taxes as the solution to the problem, although the details of specific policies like ‘carbon fee and dividend’ seemed too complex to deal with in an animated film for children.

Once we had finalized the script by the end of 2016, we made a contract with the director, Mohammad Shihabuddin, and also with Cycore, a 3D animation studio in Dhaka which would produce the animation. This took about two and a half years. Halfway through, at the end of 2017, I moved to London with my family. Work on the film was finally completed in the summer of 2019, and after broadcasting it first in Bangladesh on Deepto TV we decided to release it on YouTube in December of 2019.

Since then, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Almost 900,000 people have watched it so far from around the world, which is remarkable for a foreign language film with sub-titles. Had we known that there would be so much interest from abroad, we might have considered a dubbed English version. That is still possible, but it turns out that it’s very difficult to find English speaking actors in Bangladesh.

One valid criticism that I often hear is that we shouldn’t have shown the protagonist Ratul flying in a plane at the end of the film. This was simply an overlooked detail in the script; by the time we realised the mistake, the animation had been produced and it would have simply cost too much time and money to change it. So we ended up keeping it in. If anyone asks, I simply ask them to consider the possibility that planes in the future will be powered by thorium-powered nuclear reactors rather than fossil fuels.

Zero-C launches campaign

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SIGN DECLARATION

Most people in most countries now accept that climate change is real, dangerous and man-made. Most governments are signed up to the Paris agreement and even the most glaring exception to that is now returning to the fold. And our industries, too, are finally getting a sense of urgency and have plans to become net-zero businesses.

It’s no longer a question of ‘if we take action’ but of ‘when and how’.

This coming year—the year leading to the UN climate change conference, COP26, in Glasgow—is the time for us to push our message as hard as we know how.

The COP26 declaration of the ZeroC Commission is a good place for us to start this year of action. You can learn more about the ZeroC Commission here but the important point is that they support carbon pricing with a dividend and border-adjustments—the same policies that we, in CCL, advocate. Moreover, they’ve built an impressive list of supporters from the Drax Powerstation to Greenpeace and even Shell.

The declaration was launched today (November 24th) with an animation voiced by Stephen Fry (above).

CCL members can play a role by:

  1. Signing up to the declaration as individuals.
  2. Using social media to spread the message – go to our Twitter / Facebook and retweet / repost.

How can we quickly win trust so our legislators fix climate change?

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“If we can get legislators to not oppose us, that would go a long way” – Vince, Enviromentum

At the last monthly national meeting, CCL UK and CCL EU received some inspirational training from Vince Schutt from Enviromentum.

Vince specialises in motivational interviewing, which allows the legislator (activist, climate change denier, family member) to be empowered to tackle climate change – or, at least, not to oppose it.

The session showed that compassion and empathy would achieve our goals where confrontation and persuasion (or shaming/bullying) do not.

And it seems to have worked for CCL Canada – they undertook Vince’s training before their big lobby session with elected representatives, empowering the Canadian government to adopt a form of carbon fee and dividend.

Vince applauded the training participants for being the resilient ones – the ones who know the awful truth about climate change and can still pick themselves up and do something about it. Others – who may know the science as well as we do – are not. “Climate change denial is a good thing,” said Vince, “it prevents an epidemic of mental breakdown.” Vince described climate change denial (or, in the UK, an ‘it won’t be that bad’ downplay) as a defence mechanism for people who aren’t so resilient.

This offered a deep insight into why talking science at legislators could send them scurrying back into their comfort zones. Instead, said Vince, “If I can go in with compassion I may be able to bolster their resilience.” For some, simply aiming for them not to oppose us could make the crucial difference in passing legislation.

Motivational Interviewing is making it about them, and not us. “Why don’t they teach this at school?” asks Vince. In his experience of hundreds of interviews, he can only remember two occasions where this technique didn’t work – one who thought climate change was the wrath of God and another was a teenager whose sarcasm Vince mistook for a straight question.

There’s a basic equation to follow:

Trustworthiness = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-orientation

In other words, making it about them increases trust, and making it about us, the activist, reduces trust, and trust is the sweet point for building a relationship and their going into bat for our – now, their – cause.

Intimacy can be created very quickly by seeking collaboration and emphasising autonomy. So we don’t shame and bully our MP, or even confront and persuade, we ask them for their help and allow them the ability to choose.

To do this, Vince asked us to go in with curiosity, ask curious questions to stimulate a mutual conversation and ‘draw out their best arguments for change’.

An example:
“Why are you wearing that T-shirt?”
or
“I like the slogan on your T-shirt. Tell me about it.”
Which would get the best result? Which would feel the nicest question?

Now transpose that to climate activism (imagine a Conservative MP):
“Why did you vote for the agriculture bill?”
or:
“I like what the Prime Minister said in his congratulatory tweet to Biden, where he mentioned tackling climate change. It gave me so much hope that this was the thing he led with. How did you feel about that?”
Which would start a conversation with your MP, and which would put them in defence mode?

And how do you deal with an MP intent on a 20 minute monologue, an ‘extroverted supertalker’?

Motivational interviewing is a dance, Vince said, ‘sometimes directive, sometimes passive.’ He said that he waits until they begin to repeat themselves, then interrupts and repeats back their points in the most positive way possible – ‘View them as an angel’ – so they feel they can move on with the conversation.

Vince gave his time and expertise for free to this training session because he ‘wants there to be food in the future’. Sign up to CCL to take part in more (free) training.

Watch the video above. The post-training Q&As are here, (both videos streamed from YouTube).

The training transcript is here: Motivational interviewing transcript

Visit Environmentum.org

Pressure on Johnson to deliver and useful information about UK’s carbon emission status.

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The pressure is on….Useful article from The Independent, (15/11/20).

Government climate adviser urges Boris Johnson to act now to be ‘credible’ on crisis

‘What we’ll be looking for is firm commitments for immediate action on the central issues which really have to be dealt with at once,’ says Lord Deben

Ashley Cowburn@ashcowburn,Daisy Dunne@daisydunnesci

Boris Johnson must immediately commit to a raft of fully-funded environmental policies if he hopes to be seen as “credible” on tackling the climate emergency, according to the government’s own advisory body. Lord Deben, who chairs the independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC), told The Independent that a failure to act now would make it “much more expensive” for Britain to hit the legally binding target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Mr Johnson, in a long-awaited speech, is expected to announce that no new petrol or diesel cars can be sold as of 2030, bringing forward the date he set in February by five years. But environmental campaigners – warning the “climate clock is ticking” – urged the government to go further, and also scrap a multi-billion pound roads programme as part of the prime minister’s 10-point plan on reducing emissions.  Greenpeace said the unpublished proposals would “be a litmus test for Boris Johnson’s supposed ambition to make the UK a world leader on climate action”. The former Tory environment minister Lord Deben said: “It seems to me what characterises the government at the moment is having the right ideas and determination to do the right things, but so far we haven’t had a programme and a plan of those things actually being put into action.” He insisted there is no reason why the UK cannot deliver on the plan to reach net zero – a target enshrined in law by former prime minister Theresa May – warning: “But like so many other things you only deliver on time if you start on time, and it does involve starting on time, and on time is frankly now.” He added: “If the prime minister makes this awaited speech, what we’ll be looking for is firm commitments for immediate action on the central issues which really have to be dealt with at once.”

The Conservative peer also said that the election of Joe Biden, who last week defeated Donald Trump in the fight for the White House, made the government’s job “considerably more urgent” ahead of the UK hosting the United Nations climate summit – “Cop 26” – in Glasgow next year. With the president-elect committing to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement after his inauguration in January, Mr Johnson is seeking to reset the UK-US “special relationship” and in the past few days No 10 has made clear a key tenet of their shared interests is combatting the climate crisis. Speaking about the summit, which was postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Lord Deben said: “Boris has got a very good beginning because China, South Korea, Japan have all committed themselves to net zero programmes. It looks as if Biden will be very radical in his wishes so the prime minister has a very strong hand and if he plays it properly it will be a very big contribution to his vision of Global Britain.”

But he insisted it was “absolutely essential” what Mr Johnson does for Britain in the meantime and said the promised 10-point plan must include “the big things” such as investment in hydrogen, retrofitting policies to change heating systems of old houses, the bringing forward of the date for new motors, and policies to make “the electrical world work more effectively”, including a “willingness to invest in things that go further than offshore wind”. “All those things need to be there, committed to with the money in advance of Cop 26 if he is going to be seen to be credible,” he added.  “I think he’s got it all to play for, but what he says and the distance he goes in this next speech will be absolutely crucial to the beginning of the credibility that we need.”

According to official figures, the UK’s carbon emissions have fallen by almost 28 per cent since 2010. Much of the decline has been driven by a shift away from burning coal to generate electricity. Since 2010, carbon emissions from coal power generation have fallen by 80 per cent in the UK. This year, the UK went more than two months without using coal for electricity, breaking a new record.

However, the latest government figures show the UK is still set to miss its emissions reduction targets for 2023-2032. To achieve greater cuts, the government will need to tackle emissions in other sectors of the economy, including transport and agriculture.

Tackling emissions from these sectors could be more tricky because it will require greater changes to the way people in the UK live their lives, scientists say. For example, a shift towards electric cars, in addition to a possible reduction in car use, might be needed to tackle transport emissions.

The CCC – a statutory body established under the 2008 Climate Change Act – recommended in a June report a series of measures, including bringing forward a ban on the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars to 2032 “at the latest”.  

On Wednesday, Mr Johnson said there was “no time to waste” on climate action, and said he would set out the 10-point plan “shortly”, and has urged world leaders to put forward their own plans to “eradicate our contributions to climate change” before next year’s summit.

“There is no greater duty for any nation than protecting our people and our planet,” the prime minister said. “The pandemic has brought this into sharp focus, but climate change will remain the most enduring threat to the future of our children and grandchildren – and the world we’re fighting – if we do not act.”

Mike Childs, the head of science at Friends of the Earth, told The Independent: “So many times when the government makes much heralded announcements it turns out that they are not new.

“We will be only too happy to welcome a ban on the sale of diesel and petrol by 2030 as transport is the largest contributor to the UK’s carbon population but action on switching from gas boilers to eco-friendly heating in our homes is equally as important.

“As critical as what the government will do is what the government will stop doing. First on the cease and desist list must be stopping funding [from] damaging fossil-fuel heavy projects abroad, like the Mozambique pipeline that is contributing to awful civil unrest there, but the £27bn road programme should also be binned.”

Greenpeace UK’s policy director Doug Parr also said “top” of the government’s climate action plan must be a commitment to phase-out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, which would be “key to cutting planet-heating emissions from the most polluting sector of our economy