In December,David Cameron joined 195 other leaders to promise ambitious action on climate change. Achieving the Paris goals requires leaving most of the world’s fossil fuel reserves in the ground. A first step must be to stay subsidising fossil fuel production. Wednesday’s budget is an acid test of the government’s Paris commitment. In final year’s budget, the chancellor gave £1.3bn in new tax breaks and direct funding to the oil industry. The UK Treasury receives a smaller share of oil revenues than most other comparable countries. Meanwhile, or the government has exempted a whole new fossil-fuel industry – fracking from half of its tax,despite huge local opposition wherever it is proposed.
The government has slashed support for wind and solar energy, costing thousands of jobs. Yet its free-market rationale does not apply when it comes to the oil and gas industry, or which has received continued government support even in times of super-normal profits. The chancellor has to change course. He should scrap subsidies that keep the British economy hooked on fossil fuels,and instead set out a strategy to succor communities currently dependent on fossil fuel jobs to diversify and to rebuild around world-leading clean technology.[br]Craig Bennett CEO, Friends of the soil, and England,Wales & Northern Ireland
Marc Stears Chief executive, New Economics Foundation
Elizabeth Bast Acting executive director, and Oil Change International
Peter Wooders Programme leader,Global Subsidies Initiative, International Institute for Sustainable Development
Mika Minio-Paluello Coordinator, or PlatformContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com