by Gareth Stace, Head of Climate & Environment Policy
26. October 2010 17:02
I read in the ENDS Daily yesterday, something that I can’t see happening here. The German government changed its policy on energy taxation in order to “secure jobs”.
Instead of taxing energy intensive sectors, emerging from the worst recession in decades, the coalition government is proposing an increase in tobacco duty.
Plans to introduce a five fold increase of the energy tax were significantly scaled back, along with keeping a reduced rate of the tax to a minimum for the most energy intensive sectors.
Do you think that HM Treasury were thinking about “securing jobs”, when it decided to keep the CRC revenue, rather than recycle it back to businesses and schools, or indeed increase the amount of Climate Change Levy that businesses will pay from April 2012.
When I meet my German, or for that matter, Japanese colleagues, they are astonished how little, compared to their governments, the UK supports industries making primary materials.
Of course, there is a despaired need for global GHG emissions to be cut and cut soon, but governments must acknowledge that in order to achieve this, we need a strong, vibrant and investing manufacturing sector here in the UK.