Citizens' Climate Lobby UK
Lobbying for a carbon fee and dividend
Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder of Ovo Energy, has launched a campaign called ZeroC, a campaign to shift the world to a zero carbon future, calling for a General Carbon Charge,
one which would account for carbon pollution within the price of goods and return the money raised to citizens in the form of a “carbon dividend”
This sounds very much like our own Carbon Fee & Dividend. …
We’ll be giving an introduction to fee and dividend, with the opportunity for questions and some discussion, and then we’ll look at how we can lobby our London MPs, Assembly Members, Mayor and others. With climate change now very much on the agenda this is the perfect time to push for viable policy solutions. Targets and declarations of intent are one thing, but what’s going to really make a difference is policy and that’s what our focus is in Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
If you’re in or can get to London next Tuesday then please come along to this. We’ll be in a pub on Kennington Road called The Three Stags from 7pm. It’s opposite the Imperial War Museum, about 5 minutes walk from Lambeth North tube station and 10 minutes from Waterloo or Elephant.
https://www.meetup.com/Citizens-Climate-Lobby-London/events/262289487/
CCL member Gareth Ackland has had his letter published in New Scientist:
Debora MacKenzie is right to flag up the fear of higher environmental taxes, which could only make life disproportionately harder for the poor (Partition Mentality, 25 May, page 23). It may indeed fuel populism and nourish the idea that environmentalists are part of an elite.
The Carbon Tax and Dividend scheme championed by James Hansen accounts for this, and indeed inverts it. As all levies raised from extraction or import are divided equally between citizens, the dividend received by someone on a low income would easily outweigh the increases in their weekly shop. A high earner who overconsumes would be penalised and hopefully incentivised to adapt.
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Are you attending the Mass Lobby Day, The Time is Now, 26 June 2019?
Please can you talk to your MP about carbon fee and dividend?
The Government is currently consulting on carbon pricing – in other words, the best way to make fossil fuels more expensive than clean energy.
Please could you do the following:
The consultation closes on 11 July 2019.
We want a much harder-hitting fee on fossil fuels than we already have (petrol duty/road tax/EU ETS) and we can’t do this without a dividend to soften the blow on low and middle income families in particular.
The more emails they receive at [email protected] – from individuals, activists, charities, business owners, etc, YOU! – the more chance we will have at a carbon fee that really cuts down emissions.
Today, 21st June, is #ShowYourStripes day. These stripes, which show a colour for the average temperature of each year, blue for a cool year, red for a warm year, were invented by Ed Hawkins, climate scientist at the University of Reading, and though they’ve been around for a while, they’ve recently taken off on Twitter. …
On 11 June 2019, UK PM Theresa May declared Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions would be achieved in the UK by 2050.
What does this mean for the climate and climate change?
Here’s a presentation given at our June monthly meeting by CCL UK steering group member, Louisa Davison.
All the links to the press releases, statements and news reports are here (Google doc).
Someone alerted us on Twitter the other day to a petition he’s set up: …
Here’s all the stuff discussed at the last monthly online UK meeting (21 May 2019):
A brief training session by Gina, Judy and Louisa. Click here for the guidance notes and lots of useful links (Word doc in Google drive).
The quick answer is coverage of 100 percent of fossil fuel emissions v 20 percent..!
But, if you want to know more, illustrator Mini Grey has written a handy guide with some beautiful drawings.
Here it is: minigrey-blog.com
Who knew economics could be so good-looking?
If you like potty-mouthed John Oliver’s form of political satire, then check out his report on climate change and Canada’s take on CF&D, from December 2018. The carbon fee and dividend bit is at 25 minutes in. (Thanks to Irene for spotting this.)
Separate post to follow, but here’s a heads up on our latest campaign.
The government is consulting on taxing greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. carbon pricing) after we leave the EU. Currently we are part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS; see above).
Could you do the following?
Meanwhile, we are preparing an official CCL UK response to the Government consultation. If you have any thoughts, do email Dave Waltham.
Or you can, of course, respond as an individual (or as another group, business, etc) using the official form: gov.uk/government/consultations/the-future-of-uk-carbon-pricing
The consultation closes on 12 July 2019.
Sign this and share!
https://eci.ec.europa.eu/007/public/#/initiative
The UK employing CF&D by itself would have a limited effect. What we really need to get things going is for the European Commission to bring it in across the EU!
The good news is that CCL EU has set up a European Citizens’ Initiative.
It’s like a UK Government petition but with real teeth – when it reaches a total of 1 million signatures, the European Commission will consider whether they can turn it into EU policy. Exciting stuff!
Here’s the info about the European Citizens’ Initiative:
“It is a participatory democracy instrument that allows citizens to suggest concrete legal changes in any field where the European Commission has power to propose legislation, such as the environment, agriculture, energy, transport or trade.
An initiative enables citizens from different member states to come together around an issue close to their heart with a view to influencing EU policy-making.
To launch an initiative, it takes 7 EU citizens, living in at least 7 different Member States who are old enough to vote. Once an initiative gathers 1 million signatures with minimum thresholds reached in at least 7 countries, the European Commission must decide whether or not to take action.”
We regularly meet online – gathering members from across the UK – every third Tuesday of the month (18 June, 16 July, 20 August, 17 September, 15 October, 19 November, 17 December)
The link (via Zoom and your web browser or smart phone app) is always:
So save the dates and the link in your diary.
That’s the title of Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s proposed European Citizens’ Initiative to the European Commission (pictured) that we’ve just learnt has been accepted. Their press release states:
Today the European Commission decided to register 4 new European Citizens’ Initiatives: ‘The fast, fair and effective solution to climate change’, ‘Ending the aviation fuel tax exemption in Europe’, ‘Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures’ and ‘PRO-NUTRISCORE’. …
At this stage in the process, the Commission has not analysed the substance of the initiatives, but only their legal admissibility. Should any of the 4 registered initiatives receive 1 million statements of support within 1 year from at least 7 different Member States, the Commission will analyse it and react within 3 months. The Commission can decide either to follow the request or not, and in both instances would be required to explain its reasoning.
If the UK were to leave the European Union within the next year then we would not be one of the member states from whom these statements of support would be considered, but the initiative itself would remain in contention any signatures received before we Brexit would still count.
Our initiative, drafted in conjunction with the other CCL groups in Europe, reads:
The fast, fair and effective solution to climate change
The objective of this European Citizens’ Initiative is to introduce ‘a steadily increasing price on fossil fuels‘, which would reduce pollution and would be ‘returned fairly every month to citizens as a dividend’. The organisers state that ‘Scientists and economists agree: Putting an increasing price on pollution and giving the returns to households – works‘.
Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action with an aim of preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment as well as in the area of harmonisation of indirect taxation and commercial policy. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it. The registration of this initiative will take place on 6 May 2019, starting a one-year process of collection of signatures of support by its organisers.
You can support our initiative by signing at CitizensClimateInitiative.eu
CAN Europe is a coalition of organisations fighting dangerous climate change. Its members include Greenpeace UK, Friends of the Earth, Campaign against Climate Change and WWF.
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