Who is popular today?

Judy Hindley, Adrian Ward, Matilda Michael-Phillips and Prof Philip Steadman respond to a special report on climate emissions and inequalityRe your special series, The great carbon divide, on inequality and the climate last week and the article by Damian Carrington (Restaurants, pets and holidays: how UK’s well-off have outsize carbon footprints, 20 November), the immense cost of climate change to those least responsible is one of the most appalling developments we now confront. Yet, there is an answer. It’s nearly 10 years since Jonathan Porritt, in his book The World We Made, first called for the kind of carbon tax (now known more generally as climate income) that’s been implemented in four provinces of Canada. It’s basically a predictably rising price on all fossil fuels, with the funds rebated to citizens.The policy is redistributive, costs the government nothing and, unlike a one-off windfall tax, holds the promise of gradually pricing fossil fuels entirely out of the market. Meanwhile, it rewards alternative energy use and gives incentives to every kind of “green” innovation, initiative or behaviour. Continue reading...