New polling shows backing for policy to reduce emissions is dependent on assurances low income households will receive support for their transition as Fairness Checklist campaign launches.
According to a new YouGov poll, 65% of people in the UK want to see grants introduced to help those who earn the least pay for climate measures.
Further to this, 85% believe costs should be tied to impact, meaning those who do the most polluting would have to pay the greatest contributions to the net zero bill. The findings come at the same time as a Friends of the Earth report calling for a 10-point Fairness Checklist to support decision making around climate and net zero.
More than half of those asked only want to see emissions reduction policies introduced if low income households were protected from financial impacts, with just 14% supporting such measures regardless of their effect on people with tight budgets and monetary problems.
‘Growing wealth inequality is rapidly destroying safe living conditions on Earth, with the obscenely rich most responsible for emissions. The government needs to tax millionaires – like me – more to fund the rapid transition that we all desperately need,’ said Julia Davies, impact investor, millionaire, and founding member of Patriotic Millionaires UK.
The Fairness Test sets out steps for transport, homes, and industry in order to meet climate goals, without deepening inequalities. According to Friends of the Earth, a ‘polluter pays’ and additional wealth taxes on the super rich could bring in £60billion a year. Research by Oxfam suggests the top 1% of net worth individuals account for as much pollution as the poorest two-thirds of humanity.
The 10 step are:
- Exceed climate targets – Overachieve on all carbon reduction targets to minimise the impact of climate change on young people and future generations.
- Consult impacted communities – Be developed in consultation with people most directly impacted by climate change and/or policies to cut emissions through, for example, a citizen’s jury or climate assembly.
- Reduce inequality – Use a detailed Equality Impact Assessment to show that people experiencing poverty and inequality will be better off as a result of the climate plan.
- Ensure polluters and the wealthy pay – Fund emissions cuts and overseas climate support primarily through taxes on polluters and the wealthy, not by increasing taxes on people with the lowest incomes.
- Guarantee warm homes – Insulate all low-income households to at least EPC ‘C’ level by 2035 at the latest and eradicate fuel poverty by 2030, including through introducing a social tariff for energy.
- Make clean technology available for everyone – Ensure that low-income households benefit from technologies to cut emissions. Provide them with free heat pumps and support them in switching to electric cars.
- Double bus services – Double bus services by 2030 to help people without a car access jobs, amenities, and social networks easily and affordably.
- Reduce the cost of electricity – Lower electricity prices to internationally competitive levels so industries can go green without risking job losses or businesses moving abroad.
- Invest in green jobs – Deliver a fair transition for workers in sectors like oil and gas, vehicle manufacturing and steel. This must include retraining for equivalent jobs in other industries or, where appropriate, remaining within existing sectors.
- Support low-carbon farming – Increase subsidies for low-carbon farming and support farmers to diversify into renewable energy generation, ensuring they can significantly contribute to cutting emissions.
‘When I talk about being forced to live in unsafe housing, I often share my family’s example because that’s where this work started for me, and it’s something I see every day in my work as a clinical doctor too,’ said Dr Nazanin Rassa, a medical professional committed to health justice and the impacts of poor living standards. ‘From the moment we began our lives in the UK, my mum’s health has been threatened by mouldy, damp and cold housing. In 2023, this was made worse by soaring energy prices that meant she, like many, struggled to keep her home warm.
‘Our current housing crisis is caused by a web of intersecting issues, including heat-leaking homes with poor energy efficiency, shortages in social housing, a broken energy system dependent on volatile gas prices, systemic oppression and entrenched poverty,’ she added. ‘Climate policies like insulating homes go beyond saving the environment, they save lives too. We need a fairer climate plan that prioritises warm homes that people can feel safe living in. With better health and more money in our pockets, our economy will benefit too.’
Image: Alistair MacRobert / Unsplash
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