Green in judgment? Oliver Penrose on investment over tax

‘What we need is not ingenious taxation proposals but a programme of investment.’

by Oliver Penrose 3rd September 2021

The 30 July issue of the Friend contained a report that Milton Keynes Council, encouraged by local Quakers, had voted in favour of a ‘Carbon Fee and Dividend’ proposal. In this scheme (also known as ‘Climate Income’), a tax is levied on the sale of fossil fuels, and the revenue of this tax is distributed over the entire population as a monthly income or regular payment. The idea that the climate crisis can be alleviated simply by transferring money from greedy fossil-fuel producers to needy low-income families sounds too good to be true, and I will argue that it is indeed too good to be true.