Citizens' Climate Lobby UK

Lobbying for a carbon fee and dividend

News

CCL UK news round up

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We had a very well-attended online meeting on Tuesday 23rd May 2019 and lots of things were shared and discussed.

Next online meeting Tuesday May 21st 2019, 8pm, via Zoom – click this link just before the meeting begins – https://zoom.us/j/343351338
Topic: starting or reinvigorating a local group

Summary

(Anything you want to add to these notes, email Louisa.)

Action for the coming month: give a talk, write to/meet your MP, or local newspaper/social media to spread awareness of Carbon Fee and Dividend as a solution to climate change. Still not enough people know about it – awareness is top priority. Extinction Rebellion and the school climate strikes have created amazing awareness and energy around climate change – we are here to help by offering a fast, effective and kind solution.

We went through CCL’s five levers of political will.

Link to the CCL UK conference presentations in May on CCL UK Google Drive folder, including:

  • Mini’s flyers
  • a desk top printable version of a simple double-sided A5 flyer, particularly suitable for handing out to Extinction Rebellion protesters/Student Strikers
  • template editable grassroots presentation

Anyone who wants a stack of Mini Grey’s lovely colour flyers explaining CF&D to hand out – email us.

CCL UK YouTube channel, including a two minute video explaining CF&D: www.youtube.com/channel/UCKg3OsMPlMzXlE0sGxrwhkg

If you want to blog on this website – as long as it follows our CCL values, yes please – please ask Louisa or Paul. Professor Dave Waltham is now a columnist for a local online newspaper regarding giving Wiltshire Council assistance to lower their emissions – he is sharing these columns on our website.

Zeeshan Hasan’s presentation he gave to the Southgate/Enfield Labour Party: https://www.slideshare.net/ZeeshanHasan10/how-to-save-the-planet-and-make-society-more-equal-140524923

The LibDems are very onboard with CF&D – they will be debating whether to adopt it at the 2019 party conference. Fated to be the next LibDem leader, Layla Moran MP mentioned CF&D at the Feb climate change parliamentary debate.

How to find out about your MP: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/

Mini Grey, children’s writer and illustrator has written about insects and how CF&D can help protect them.

What about the latest stuff on the government’s actions on emissions targets to meet the Paris agreement?

Michael R. made the case that Carbon Fee and Dividend would price fossil fuels out of the market, and make them a toxic investment. Imagine an oil company going to investors, he said, and asking for whatever millions of investment they needed for their latest exploration and being shown the door.
Dave W’s comment: “There will also be a race by oil companies to sell their oil fast. It can have temporary bad effects.”

Here’s a calculator for working out the price of fossil fuels under a carbon tax like this.

A new book about carbon fee and dividend is being published at the end of May.

Why is climate change so politicised? On the BBC.

How does Canada’s carbon fee and dividend compare with the model we are promoting? Or, more rightly, the US’s Energy and Innovation Carbon Dividend Act? Here’s a video.

Wolfram would like to start a CCL group in Exeter – any CCLers down that way? If so, email us.

Nikki Jones presentation: ‘The Climate Change Act then and now’

“The case for carbon tax” by Shi-Ling Hsu
https://islandpress.org/books/case-carbon-tax
Summary by Zeeshan:

Pages 27-28 explaining ‘economically optimal’ Pigouvian carbon tax:
“A common economic prescription for reducing pollution is the imposition of a “Pigouvian” tax, named for the economist Alfred Pigou. A Pigouvian tax is a unitary tax levied to make an emitter pay for the externalities caused by its emissions – no more, no less. A carbon tax could be a Pigouvian tax. In theory, a Pigouvian carbon tax would be set at a level equal to the damages of the emissions of a ton of carbon or carbon dioxide.
The problem with the Pigouvian taxation of carbon dioxide is that there is a great deal of controversy over estimates of the marginal damages of carbon dioxide emissions… A 2005 survey of marginal damages studies by Richard Tol found a range of estimates from zero to more than one thousand dollars per ton. More recently, a study by William Nordhaus estimated the marginal society damages at about $7.50 t/CO2. A much higher estimate was obtained in the UK government-commissioned Stern Review, by Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank, which estimated current marginal damages at about $85/tCO2.”

Carbon dividends to make tax progressive and reduce impact on poor:

Page 101:
“…revenues raised by carbon taxes may need to be refunded to help build political support. Because Pigouvian taxes have been so unpopular in the past and carbon taxes remain unpopular, recent carbon tax programs have been put forth as being ‘revenue neutral’… Concerns over the regressiveness of carbon taxes may force a substantial redistribution of carbon tax revenues”

Page 124:
“A… class of objections to carbon taxes has to do with its perceived regressiveness. A carbon tax is considered a form of a consumption tax, and without some adjustments or exemptions, consumption taxes tend to disproportionately hurt poorer individuals and households.”

Page 131:
“The key to addressing the regressiveness problem of carbon taxes is to return, or ‘recycle’, at least a large portion of the carbon tax revenues… back to taxpayers in a way that blunts or even reverses the economic pain suffered by poor households.”

Using international trade to decarbonise globally with carbon taxes and border adjustments:

Page 95:
“A carbon tax, if it could be scaled up to an international accord, represents a better chance of engaging China, India and developing countries and providing their governments with the incentives to put in place and keep in place policies to reduce emissions.”

Page 96:
“If a country regulated greenhouse gas emissions and could, via border tax adjustments, equalize the international playing field, then greenhouse gas regulation would not necessarily put domestic industries at a competitive disadvantage. A border tax adjustment could take many forms, but most commonly would be the levy of an import tax on products imported from countries that did not regulate greenhouse gas emissions. So products made in countries which do not regulate greenhouse gas emissions would face a tax when they seek to export to countries that have domestic greenhouse gas regulations”

Conference news: Climate Museum / Hope for the Future

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Climate Museum

Throughout the conference this Saturday 16th March (from 10am-4pm) the Climate Museum will be in the main body of the National Self-Build Centre.

The first rule of Climate Museum is talk about Climate Change!

Climate Museum is a pop-up museum of ‘loose parts’ – props and curious objects, infographics, games, activities and a library – to stimulate discussion of climate change, engaging that creative part of our brains.

Anyone can drop in and have a play whether conference attenders or not.

The Climate Museum will also be helping with our final Action Plan session.

Hope for the Future Hope for the Future

Specialists in engaging with MPs about climate change, Hope for the Future will lead a workshop to build our confidence in working with our elected members.

It’s only a week to go so do book your tickets.

More information about the conference

Conference page

Book tickets at cclukconference2018.eventbrite.co.uk

Latest carbon pricing news

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A House of Lords sub-committee (recording above) grilled Rt Hon Claire Perry MP (Devizes) Constituency, Robert Jenrick MP (Newark) and the Treasury on plans for carbon pricing, post-Brexit, on 27 Feb 2018.
If we have it right, here’s the Government’s position:
– they are committed to tackling climate change regardless of status in EU.
– to stay in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), at least until end 2020. (The ETS is the current system of fossil fuel emissions taxation and is very complicated.)
– to link with the EU ETS. (This should be be a quicker process than with Switzerland because Britain originally formulated the ETS and we account for 10 percent of participants whereas Swizerland has ten times less)
-there’s a lot of admin associated with the ETS. The new IT infrastructure required is expected to cost more than £2.5m
-part of the EU ETS agreement is that participants spend at least 50 percent of the revenue on environment-related iniatives
-they are confident that Britain spends more than 50 percent, but it’s difficult to be exact – particuarly about climate change spend – because the tax is not ‘hypothecated’ ie the government does not tax something to be set aside to be spent on a particular thing, it goes into a general pot and then is budgeted on all sorts of projects.
-they think the ETS has been really working, and has reduced on our reliance on coal, but no mention was made of oil/gas. (ETS only covers about 20 percent of emissions)
-A rate of £16 would apply to each tonne of carbon dioxide emitted over and above an installation’s emissions allowance, which is a ‘continuation’ of the current rate. This was seen to be the simplest course of action.
-Currently, businesses are being consulted.

Conference: how to make a difference

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Louisa Davison writes about the first UK conference, 16 March 2019, Swindon.

Many people concerned – angry – about climate change ask themselves: “Is there any point talking to my MP? Will the Government do anything about this catastrophic problem facing our species and our world? Won’t they just do whatever they want to do and ignore me and others like me? They’ll never change their minds. People will never give up oil.”

The truth is that governments change their minds all the time. Parliament is made up with people who specialise in listening and doing what their electorate wants, even if it’s not the wisest course of action. They are voted in by UK citizens to be our representatives. If we don’t tell them what we think and what we want, then others will steer the news, the debate and the policies which create our laws.

Yes, parliament is made of people, people with a very difficult job trying to do the right thing (what is the right thing?) and stay in power long enough to make a difference or at least make a difference while they have the power.

And often they are faced with an electorate who don’t have all the facts, and are angry at all the times they have seemingly failed, failing to recognise their successes, or have an ideology which seems an impossible dream.

And what about our addiction to oil? We gave up CFCs and fixed the ozone layer. We gave up slavery. We gave women the vote. We said homosexuality should not be prosecuted. We made health care free for everyone. We made peace with other European countries and in Northern Ireland. At one time, all these things seemed impossible.

is not everything impossible until it is done?

So said Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, Victorian author Sir Daniel Wilson and Nelson Mandela.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby tries a different way.

We are optimistic

We are not giving up on this world or finding a plan B. We can sort out this mess. And we believe we have the solution to do enough of a job to clear it up. We know this because great economic and political minds have worked on the solution, and these minds care as much about climate change as anyone reading this.

We believe in democracy

It may not be perfect, but it gives everyone a voice – and not just on polling day. Any citizen can expect to talk with and meet with their MP. They have an obligation to respond to their electorate. They are public servants doing a job and we – UK citizens – are the ones giving them their job description.

We are respectful, grateful – and firm

MPs and the people who support them are people. People respond best to respect, gratitude and recognition that they are doing a hard job. We will win them over to our side and influence them more if we remember this. We transmute our anger into action and we stay calm. We find common ground and work together, regardless of political ideology.

But we remember why we are there. We are there to fix climate change. We are not pacified, put off or buried in rhetoric.

I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.

  • Mahatma Gandi, 1920, from Young India

So, on 16th March, meet us, join us and find out how to work with democracy and turn the tide on climate change.

Tickets here: citizensclimatelobby.uk/events/2019/03/ccl-uk-conference-2018

CCL World News

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Ireland is seriously considering carbon fee and dividend, as reported by CCL group leaders today, 29 January 2019.

“Ireland is one of the worst emissions offenders but we are pushing on an open door,” said Graham Caswell, CCL Ireland’s Leader. “It’s crunch time”.

Nigeria may also be looking at carbon pricing as well. CCL Nigeria is working towards creating the political will for CF&D.

“Nigeria has an economy as big as Russia,” said Cathy Orlando (Canada), “And an oil producing country so if they take up CF&D it will have a real effect on the rest of the world.” As the CCL International Outreach Manager, Cathy congratulated the efforts of David Michael Terungwa of CCL Nigeria and CCL Africa co-ordinator.

CCL Panama made Parachutes for the Planet to engage citizens and politicians through art, as well as create excellent promotion at the World Youth Day organised by the Catholic Church. 33 parachutes created by young people were displayed around the Rommel Fernandez Stadium in Panama City for Pope Francis’ address.

James Collis from CCL Portugal reported how they are working with a coalition of EU members, gathering support to urge the EU to consider carbon fee and dividend.

Raj Phukan from CCL India shared how his country is suffering a water crisis and how they are desperate to find a solution.

World Youth Day 2019
World Youth Day 2019
World Youth Day 2019

URGENT campaign – Brexit and climate change

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We have twelve years to bring down greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. It is the biggest threat to our world and our species.

We think the best way to do this is to tax fossil fuels at source and give the money back to citizens, in a dividend.

And you can help create the political will to make this happen by talking to your MP. (Find and email your MP)

The minister of state for energy and clean growth, Claire Perry, is deciding the carbon taxation the UK will adopt when we leave the EU.

So, to ensure she prioritises carbon fee and dividend, please write to and/or visit your MP. You can also copy your email/letter to Claire to make double sure it reaches her ([email protected]).

If you haven’t written before – don’t worry about understanding all the points. Weight of letters, respect for your MP’s work and enthusiasm for carbon fee and dividend as the solution for tackling climate change is what matters.

The most important thing is to write something – however brief!

…even better – meet them in person.

Quick briefing

  • Begin by thanking them (and Claire) for their work.
  • Say – respectfully – how strongly you feel about climate change and the threat it poses.
  • Briefly explain carbon fee and dividend (see info below).
  • Say carbon fee and dividend would be a more effective replacement for the UK’s current pollution tax – EU Emissions Trading Scheme – and that we need to adopt it as soon as possible to work (see info below).
  • Ask if you can count on their support to adopt the policy of carbon fee and dividend either as the replacement scheme or to work alongside a UK emissions trading scheme.
  • Ask them to please forward your correspondence to Claire Perry.
  • Remember to include your address and phone number so they know you are a constituent – this means they are obliged to answer.

Carbon fee and dividend (CF&D) in summary

Carbon fee and dividend would place an annually rising fee on fossil fuels as they are extracted or enter the country, and give the cash collected back to citizens, equally.

More here: citizensclimatelobby.uk/policy

Reasons why CF&D is the best choice

It covers more greenhouse gas emissions
The current EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) only covers 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon fee and dividend would cover all emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
US studies by Climate Leadership Council have indicated that CF&D could bring down greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent in four years: clcouncil.org/media/Exceeding-Paris.pdf

It’s a vote winner

  • It protects the pockets of UK citizens as fossil fuel prices rise, which in turn protects business and our economy.
  • The dividend will leave two thirds of the country better off or the same as before.
  • It is clear and easy to understand, so people would notice this effective move to tackle climate change.
  • It encourages people away from fossil fuels by making clean energy the cheapest option and encourages innovation into more clean energy options, which…
  • …makes fossil fuels the energy of the past rather than demanding people go without.
  • Meanwhile France has tried to raise fuel duty without a dividend, causing riots.
    (You may remember back in the early noughties in the UK, a hike in fuel duty caused similar problems – road blockades at the fuel depots causing countrywide shortages.)

It’s good for the economy (and won’t crash it)
It stimulates the clean energy economy by giving a clear signal to business that fossil fuels will be priced out of the market and they will need to invest in new technology and/or shift their business model towards clean energy.

It lets the market decide
Instead of the government subsidising different technologies (then taking subsidies away, leaving business high and dry, or investing in things that don’t work), it lets people and business decide which clean energy option is best for them.

Top minds endorse it
Leading UK think tank, Policy Exchange, have brought out a report laying out a carbon tax and dividend, advocated by former Cons leader Michael Howard and former Labour chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling:
policyexchange.org.uk/publication/the-future-of-carbon-pricing-implementing-an-independent-carbon-tax-with-dividends-in-the-uk/
Also, top UK economists including Prof. Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute and former World Bank chief economist and Prof. Dieter Helm CBE have called for it.

Other countries are adopting it
Our allies in other countries are using carbon fee and dividend to tackle climate change:

Remember to thank Claire Perry for her achievements

One of the reasons CCL is such an effective movement is that we treat our democratically elected members with respect, no matter our personal politics.

Thank Claire for these achievements (and more):

  • Claire is genuinely concerned about climate change and the best way to tackle it.
  • Claire plays a leading role in the Powering Past Coal international alliance.
  • In October 2018, Claire spearheaded the first Green Great Britain week.
  • Claire is committed to carbon taxation to tackle climate change.

Thank you for all you do – we can make this happen, together.

Canada to be first country with carbon fee and dividend!

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We received this from Mark Reynolds, CCL US Executive Director, yesterday, by email. Whoop! Whoop!

“Today, Canada has shown true environmental leadership. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier that, in order to ensure a healthy climate, Canada will adopt a national price on carbon pollution starting in January 2019. Specifically, Canada will implement a carbon fee and dividend, with revenue from the fee returned directly to Canadians.

For the last eight years, Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada has been asking the government to adopt this policy. Today, we congratulate our Canadian CCL volunteers, whose tireless work and enthusiasm have played a major role in today’s announcement. This welcome news could not come at a more crucial time for our climate. As the first country to implement a national carbon fee and dividend, Canada has shown us all that it is politically possible.

As Canada shows the way, we know it is no longer a matter of if, but when, other countries will follow their lead. Our hopes are high in the United States that the same engaged citizenship will lead to our own national climate solution. After all, we know it can be done.”

And here’s the rest of the story

Eight years of relentless lobbying by the volunteers of CCL Canada paid off this week with the announcement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that carbon fee and dividend will be the default policy for pricing carbon in Canada.

The policy is a backstop to cover the four provinces – Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick – that have not initiated carbon pricing policies of their own. Nearly half of Canada’s population lives in these provinces. The plan will assess a fee on carbon starting at $20 per ton and increasing $10 per ton each year until it reaches $50 in 2022. Revenue from the fee will be returned to households.

“We’re the little lobby that could,” said Cathy Orlando, CCL’s International Outreach Manager based in Sudbury, Ontario. “Our patience and persistence has been rewarded with an effective program that puts Canada on the path to meeting its global obligation on climate change. Today’s announcement is also an affirmation of CCL’s approach to engaging government with an attitude of appreciation, respect and being nonpartisan.”

Now let’s hope the rest of world – perhaps the UK next? – will follow suit.

The Future of Carbon Pricing launch

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This week has been hugely exciting in the fight to combat climate change.

A CCL UK contingent sat down with civil servants, journalists and energy companies on Wednesday (10 Oct 2018) to hear the hotly anticipated launch of Policy Exchange’s ‘The Future of Carbon Pricing’ report. In the same week, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said we had 12 years to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we are to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees, and an advocate of carbon pricing – William Nordhaus – won the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Both Nobel Prize winners work in sustainable economics. “I think… many people think that protecting the environment will be so costly and so hard that they just want to ignore [this]. [But] we can absolutely make substantial progress protecting the environment and do it without giving up the chance to sustain growth,” said joint winner Prof Paul Romer.

So why was this report on Carbon Pricing so exciting?

Well here was a government think tank darling pushing for a carbon tax and dividend.

Report co-author Matt Rooney opened the launch to the backdrop of Brexit. Right now we’re part of the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS), “cornerstone of the EU’s policy to combat climate change and its key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively.” …

A thrilling week in climate change!

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The Nobel Prize for Economics has been won by carbon pricing advocates, William Nordhaus and Paul Romer.

This week has been a seismic shift in the fight against climate change and for CCL across the world.

In the same week as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said we had to move much more quickly with ‘pretty hard choices’ with just 12 years to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and Policy Exchange launched their pro-carbon tax and dividend report, two economists working in the realm of sustainable growth and how the market economy interacts with nature have won probably the world’s most prestigious prize.

Prof Romer said: “I think… many people think that protecting the environment will be so costly and so hard that they just want to ignore [this].
“[But] we can absolutely make substantial progress protecting the environment and do it without giving up the chance to sustain growth.”

“I hope this can change the world,” said Jiang Kejun of China’s semi-governmental Energy Research Institute, one of the authors of the IPCC report. “Two years ago, even I didn’t believe 1.5C was possible but when I look at the options I have confidence it can be done.”

Pope on climate crisis: Continue to work for radical change

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An international conference was held in Rome in July to mark the third anniversary of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical, “Laudato si’: On Care for our Common Home.” The two-day conference focused on the theme “Saving our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth.”

Pope Francis noted the “increasingly accurate assessments” of the scientific community concerning the environment. “There is a real danger that we will leave future generations only rubble, deserts, and refuse,” he said.”

But he expressed his hope that “concern for the state of our common home” would be translated into concrete actions to preserve the environment. In particular, he called on governments to honour their commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement “in order to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.” The COP24 Summit, he said, “could prove a milestone on the path set out” by the Agreement.

The Pope also mentioned the Global Climate Action Summit, taking place in San Francisco in September, while urging the support of “citizens’ pressure groups” to provide support he stated that, financial institutions also “have an important role to play, as part both of the problem and its solution.”

“All of these actions,” Pope Francis said, “presuppose a transformation on a deeper level, namely a change of hearts and minds.” He reiterated Pope St John Paul’s calls for an “ecological conversion,” and emphasised the role of religions, and especially Christianity, in working to that end.

He expressed his gratitude for the efforts of participants “in the service of care for creation and a better future for our children and grandchildren.” Despite the presence of special interests which make those efforts seem “arduous,” Pope Francis encouraged them, saying:

Please continue to work for ‘the radical change which present circumstances require.’ For ‘injustice is not invincible.’