We have been assailed on all sides over the past ten years with taxes growing in size and scope aimed at controlling climate change. More than £500 million of the increase in the green taxes last year was due to rising renewable energy levies to subsidise the construction of wind and solar farms and other green technologies. Telegraph
The total which we pay to keep the consequences of the Climate Change Act fuelled with green tax and levies on our bills is astonishing. In 2012 this was £1,564. This is a big burden, but the tragedy is that it is all unnecessary as the evidence is on the side of there being no significant climate issue, and there has been no global warming in eighteen years.
To make matters worse, UK consumers are also now to fund free LED lighting for supermarkets. In a scheme announced by Ed Davey, the energy secretary, £20m of taxpayer cash will be put into a trial scheme in which businesses will be offered funding to carry out energy efficiency improvements. Supermarkets have shelves full of low energy LED bulbs; why they would need consumers’ money to acquire the bulbs and pay for them is something only Ed Davey could answer.
Telegraph
The cash will come through a billpayer-funded ‘capacity market’, at an estimated cost of £13 per household per year, will pay power plants retainers to guarantee their availability and also pay businesses to temporarily reduce their usage at times of peak demand. This is apparently a measure aimed at reducing demand, and compensating for the inability of renewables to provide power reliably, when diesel powered stand-by generators would otherwise have to be brought into action.
In Australia, the government has recently pushed through legislation to abandons disastrous green tax on emissions. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has won backing to end the tax on carbon dioxide emissions, signalling the pointlessness of such schemes.
“Tony Abbott, Australia’s centre-right Prime Minister, finally made good on his pre-election pledge after his government repealed the measure introduced by his Labor predecessor Julia Gillard.
Poorly thought out and highly unpopular, the tax is almost unique in that it generated virtually no revenue for the Australian Treasury due to its negative impact on productivity; contributed to the rising costs that have taken the gloss off the country’s resources boom; and essentially helped to bring down Ms Gillard’s former Government. ”
Telegraph
Philip Hutchings of wattsupwiththat had this to say:
That carbon tax has cost three prime ministerships, confused the voting population, and achieved pretty much nothing. Other market dynamics have been far more important in changing Australia’s greenhouse emissions, yet it’s politically insensitive to mention them.
The sanctimoniousness of such a tax in Australia is breathtaking. We are an energy heavy-weight, the world’s largest exporter of coal. Soon we will also be the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
It is interesting that green taxes resulted in the downfall of the previous Australian government. Once the figures for the high levels of green taxation on the UK become widely appreciated, and that such carbon reduction schemes are actually worthless, the UK electorate might yet strike a similar blow.
The UK Govt auctions around 65 million tonnes of carbon credits each year and generates about £350 million in revenue from them. Because the carbon price is ‘too low’ it then tops up the revenue via the Carbon Floor Price which almost quadruples this amount. To top it off the Govt then attaches vat at 8% on the final bill. The goal of the climate policies is absolutely nothing to do with environmental concerns, it is all about taxing power consumption.
Offshore wind produces power at £140 per mw/h, solar at £160 and coal at £40 (figures from crown estate and LEBA). The EU target of 30% on a grid of 65GW means that we will have to pay £19,000,000,000 in subsidies annually to cover this differential.
Bringing up the cost issue of government policies on climate change will swing public opinion around to the UKIP stance. Hopefully in the same way that it has done in Australia, where it has seen the downfall of a carbon taxing government, replaced by one which is now drawing back from costly ‘decarbonisation’.
I have been saying for years that global warming Is the biggest lie which has ever been told! Tell a lie often enough and people start believing it………. UKIP saving millions by stopping green taxes could be another vote winner.
I agree, green isn’t working. Let’s make it a slogan!
All true.
That slogan, “Green Isn’t Working’ should feature prominently
in every leaflet going out in UKIP’s target seats in the near future. Perhaps better
still would be the headline that UKIP will save every household £1,629 in taxes
by abolishing all those unnecessary green taxes. For some reason the article
above gives the 2012 figure of £1,564 whereas the Telegraph article also gives
the higher 2013 figure. It should also be pointed out in the leaflets that there
hasn’t been any global warming for seventeen years. UKIP is the only one of the main parties which supports climate realism so this is a very distinctive UKIP policy.