Exitlog | Leaving Impressions

It’s not easy going green…

While you can applaud the Stern Review, and the announcement by the British government, for highlighting the economic dangers of unchecked climate change, asking Britons to personally foot the bill is ridiculous and unreasonable.

Look at today’s front cover of the New York Times, or any of the American newspapers and you can seem the prominence of climate change. They are all more concerned with the upcoming mid-term elections. Even if CO2 emissions were a priority you can rest assured that Washington is not going to ask the American public is not going to tighten their belt for the benefits created through green taxes. Climate change is low on the list of their priorities. Paying for it, even lower.

If Britain were to make a difference on CO2 emissions, it seems China will probably only make up the deficit as their economy grows. The biggest single change we can make globally would be to invest in replacing our largest CO2 emitters, our cars.

The volatile nature of price crude and its supply, which is or will be in decline depending on who you believe, necessitates its replacement. Clean sources of fuel and vehicles designed not to use fossil fuels will do more for the environment than all the taxes Gordon Brown can levy against this overburdened nation. America, China and any of the other growing giants are not going to tax their citizens for the sake of climate change. So why should the British public?

Taxation is already high. There is a concern that it is stifling output and curbing the competitiveness of UK businesses. More tax is not going to solve climate change. Investment in replacing cars could. The development could do more for the environment, let alone create a business no longer dependant on OPEC, than all the pennies New Labour can gather. If we led the way, we might could even develop a product that we could manufacture and export to the rest of the world.

Gordon Brown said that in “the 21st century, our new objectives will be threefold: growth, full employment and environmental care.” His economic growth is largely based on carbon emission allocations, horse-trading and bidding wars for those with spare to sell. This will no doubt become fiscal reality, but it still ignores the obvious: developing green and renewable products while adapting to our situation will do more to stimulate trade than managing emissions and taxing the public.

If we invested in technologies that removed our dependence on fossil fuels we could save the planet, create jobs and new businesses – all while restoring much needed pride. Our industry for the most part seems content on reselling things manufactured elsewhere.

Our Industrial Revolution might have started this whole sorry mess of heating the globe, but taxing ourselves back to the Middle Ages is no way to apologise.