Headline:
Miliband calls for eco-taxes
Description:
Environment secretary David Miliband has called on Gordon Brown to introduce a raft of green taxes aimed at tackling climate change.
In a letter to the chancellor, leaked to the Mail on Sunday, Miliband put forward proposals to increase duties on fuel and air travel as well as hiking up road tax for drivers of the most polluting vehicles.
"We must develop a personal and collective responsibility to change our behaviour. Achieving this relies on market forces and price signals that support environmental goals," he wrote.
"Alongside regulatory and other measures, market based instruments including taxes need to play a substantial role in our emerging strategy to respond to climate change."
Among his proposals, Miliband said a "substantial increase" in road tax for vehicles with high emissions should be considered to encourage people to drive less polluting cars.
Road-pricing should, he added, "reflect the full environmental impact of the journey made" as well as encourage more travellers to use public transport.
He also suggested annual increases in fuel duty as well as "pay as you go" road taxes whereby drivers would be charged per mile.
Dealing with air travel, the environment secretary complained that is it currently "lightly taxed". If air passenger duty was raised by £5, he said, an extra £400m would be raised. "There is also a case for making flights subject to VAT either on domestic flights, or better still, for all EU flights," Miliband added.
Following the leak of the document, Miliband confirmed the plans were being considered. "In the UK I think we should be proud that our country is leading the way in the reduction of the greenhouses gases, the carbon dioxides that are so dangerous," he told Sky News.
He claimed that Labour and the Conservatives agreed that climate change should be high on the agenda. "I think it's good that the Conservatives have come out of the Stone Age, they want to debate these issues.
"I look forward to the next election when all parties are competing to show that they can make a difference on the climate."
The news of the proposals came ahead of the release of a report on climate change by Sir Nicholas Stern which predicted the "biggest global economic crash since the 1930s".
The 700-page document said global warming could reduce the global economy by 20%. However, if action was taken immediately to tackle it, Stern said, it would cost only 1% of global cross domestic product.
Responding to the report, prime minister Tony Blair said: "This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime.
"Investment now will pay us back many times in the future, not just environmentally but economically as well. For every £1 invested now we can save £5, or possibly more, by acting now.
"We can't wait the five years it took to negotiate Kyoto - we simply don't have the time. We accept we have to go further [than Kyoto]."
source:accountingweb
In a letter to the chancellor, leaked to the Mail on Sunday, Miliband put forward proposals to increase duties on fuel and air travel as well as hiking up road tax for drivers of the most polluting vehicles.
"We must develop a personal and collective responsibility to change our behaviour. Achieving this relies on market forces and price signals that support environmental goals," he wrote.
"Alongside regulatory and other measures, market based instruments including taxes need to play a substantial role in our emerging strategy to respond to climate change."
Among his proposals, Miliband said a "substantial increase" in road tax for vehicles with high emissions should be considered to encourage people to drive less polluting cars.
Road-pricing should, he added, "reflect the full environmental impact of the journey made" as well as encourage more travellers to use public transport.
He also suggested annual increases in fuel duty as well as "pay as you go" road taxes whereby drivers would be charged per mile.
Dealing with air travel, the environment secretary complained that is it currently "lightly taxed". If air passenger duty was raised by £5, he said, an extra £400m would be raised. "There is also a case for making flights subject to VAT either on domestic flights, or better still, for all EU flights," Miliband added.
Following the leak of the document, Miliband confirmed the plans were being considered. "In the UK I think we should be proud that our country is leading the way in the reduction of the greenhouses gases, the carbon dioxides that are so dangerous," he told Sky News.
He claimed that Labour and the Conservatives agreed that climate change should be high on the agenda. "I think it's good that the Conservatives have come out of the Stone Age, they want to debate these issues.
"I look forward to the next election when all parties are competing to show that they can make a difference on the climate."
The news of the proposals came ahead of the release of a report on climate change by Sir Nicholas Stern which predicted the "biggest global economic crash since the 1930s".
The 700-page document said global warming could reduce the global economy by 20%. However, if action was taken immediately to tackle it, Stern said, it would cost only 1% of global cross domestic product.
Responding to the report, prime minister Tony Blair said: "This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime.
"Investment now will pay us back many times in the future, not just environmentally but economically as well. For every £1 invested now we can save £5, or possibly more, by acting now.
"We can't wait the five years it took to negotiate Kyoto - we simply don't have the time. We accept we have to go further [than Kyoto]."
source:accountingweb
Date:
01.11.2006
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