Yet Another Excuse To Fill Brown's Pockets? (Green taxes?)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Green taxes?
Date:	06/11/06 (195 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Recognition that we have a problem

Disadvantages: Domestic taxes will not solve the problem

It’s been a frustrating morning so far. I’ve done my bit for the planet by taking our excessive number of green, brown and clear bottles for re-cycling; gone and got my shopping with the usual eco-friendly content and driven home in my third most fuel-efficient car in the country. I should feel good I suppose; after all I have some kind of conscience (apart from the drinking thing which is shameful) but what’s annoyed me is the abject mess left by the side of the re-cycling thingies with the holes in the side (why can’t folks take their f***ing rubbish home afterwards?); the incredible number of old people out and about today who all seem to think checkouts are too slow or "why don’t they put another till on?" and the relatively sloth-like speed that old people drive at. Apologies if you are an old ‘un and getting redder in the face as you read this but why are the older generation in such a rush in the supermarket and then just pootle about when they get into a car? I’m sure the golden generation has a much longer "to do" list than me but do show some patience, senior dudes, and stop trying to rope me in when you want to moan about your unacceptable queue time *groan* Aaaaanyway, if you are wondering what the hell all of that has to do with the “Green taxes” issue then I guess it’s to point out that I’m in an irascible mood as I write this and it may well be reflected in my thoughts.

So the politicians have finally woken up to the fact that we are destroying the planet at a rate of knots. In fact, the latest news indicates that if the present rate of climate change continues, what with floods, hurricanes, people growing grapes in the middle of December in Doncaster and the ice caps melting faster than the Titanic sinking in the North Atlantic then we may well all be living in mud huts and using cups and paper to communicate in 50 years time. It’s a frightening prospect made more frightening by the idea of the global economy slowing down by 1% if we act now and by anything between 20 – 30% if we don’t. Make no mistake; this would impact on everybody significantly. However, the response to such a massive issue has to be equally global in its stature and yet all the sound bites that come from the politicians are about introducing/enhancing green taxes. Will the present electorate ever tire of being taxed until the pips squeak and realise that the goodwill factor of our hard-earned going towards hospitals and schools is all an elaborate sham?

For anyone that’s not seen the news the recent “Stern Review” has indicated that extreme weather could reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 1%; a 2 – 3 degrees Celsius rise in temperatures could reduce global economic output by 3%; if temperatures rise by five degrees Celsius, up to 10% of global output could be lost. The poorest countries would lose more than 10% of their output; in the worst case scenario global consumption per head would fall 20% and to stabilise at manageable levels, emissions would need to stabilise in the next 20 years and fall between 1% and 3% after that. This would cost 1% of GDP. It goes on to suggest that the possible solutions might include: Reducing consumer demand for heavily polluting goods and services; making global energy supply more efficient; acting on non-energy emissions - preventing further deforestation would go a long way towards alleviating this source of carbon emissions and promoting cleaner energy and transport technology, with non-fossil fuels accounting for 60% of energy output by 2050.

The government has suggested that they may adopt the following measures in their strategy: Create a global market for carbon pricing; extending the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EETS) globally, bringing in countries such as the US, India and China; setting new target for EETS to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2020 and 60% by 2050; passing a bill to enshrine carbon reduction targets and create a new independent body to monitor progress; creating a new commission to spearhead British company investment in green technology, with the aim of creating 100,000 new jobs; working with the World Bank and other financial institutions to create a $20bn fund to help poor countries adjust to climate change challenges and working with Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica to promote sustainable forestry and prevent deforestation.

My fear in all of this is that the governments that actually matter don’t take the findings seriously and domestically, the UK government simply reduces the whole thing into yet another sleight of hand to draw yet more income from the middle classes of this country. OK, if there is to be a tax on 4 x 4s that causes uproar in downtown Richmond then so be it. To be honest, I don’t think it would make a lot of difference to me apart from the satisfying notion of hurting those ridiculous individuals who buy those completely stoopid gas-guzzling monstrosities where it hurts them most – in the pocket. To have an impact on a global basis then key governments like India, China and the US must come on board and judging by the American contempt towards the Kyoto agreement, this still seems unlikely. With the economies of China and India expanding at a phenomenal rate then anything we do at a local level will simply be dwarfed by the junk being spewed out into the atmosphere by these two economic heavyweights of the modern world. And therein lies the rub. We ponce about talking about turning lights off, insulating lofts and driving a little more slowly in our diesel smart cars that take up just 6” of kerb space when parking, when the actual solution to the issue is so much more fundamental than that. I can take as many bottles back for re-cycling as I like but unless the poisonous clouds of smog that get churned out by the biggest players already mentioned aren't reduced significantly then we really are p*ssing in the ocean with anything else we try to do.

Which brings me back to green taxes. The fact is that the proportion of overall tax paid in this country is reaching record levels. Very little of tax payers money ear-marked as road taxes go on the roads; very little of tax payers money ear-marked for health goes on hospitals (the vast majority of the money is swallowed up by the bureaucracy that’s sprung up over the last 10 years or so) and more and more money goes on the spiraling welfare system that’s endemic in this country although mitigated by the record number of jobs created in the public sector to count the numbers of trees in a constituency or empty my bins from time to time. If we are serious about tackling the problem of global climate change then we need an international response that focuses on industries being made to look at the outputs from their industrial processes and, somehow, for this concept to be bought by the new industrial superpowers – China and India – as well as getting the capitalist ostrich that is the U.S. to get with the programme and appreciate its obligation to the rest of the world that extends beyond blowing up middle-eastern countries and perpetuating a non-existent enemy in its mythical war on terror (it’s the idea of Western Imperialism that needs to be squashed in the Middle East, not some idealistic terrorist who thinks he/she is doing their bit for the region by killing more innocent westerners as retaliation for the occupation of its land by the Infidel). Don’t be fooled by the call for higher taxes; this issue can be solved but only with a coordinated plan that faces up to industrial processes and adopts an integrated approach to pollution on a Global scale.

Thanks for reading and I'd love to know your thoughts.

Mara

Summary: My view of the green tax issue