Greens say new department must genuinely focus on Net Zero
7 February 2023
*Demand to end all fossil fuel subsidies and windfall tax loopholes
*Call for carbon tax to fund renewable energy and home insulation
With the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero launched [1] on the day BP has announced record profits [2] and greenhouse gas emissions are confirmed to have increased by 5% between 2020 and 2021 [3], the Green Party has called for the new department to “genuinely focus all its energy on achieving Net Zero”.
The Party’s co-leader, Adrian Ramsay, has called for a carbon tax in order to move the ‘grotesque profits’ of fossil fuel companies into funding a huge push towards renewable energy and a mass home insulation programme.
Ramsay said:
“Having dumped the Department of Energy and Climate Change some seven years ago, the Tories have decided to resurrect it in a new guise: the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. This department must genuinely focus all its energy on achieving Net Zero. It must stop all fossil fuel subsidies and end the perverseness of allowing energy companies to avoid windfall taxes on their grotesque profits by investing in further exploitation of oil and gas reserves.
“A carbon tax is one of the greatest levers we can apply to help shift us towards the clean green economy we need in order to cut climate wrecking emissions and create a fairer healthier society [4]. Companies like BP, Shell and other big polluters have been responsible for three quarters of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 [5]. A carbon tax would target these big polluters and provide the funding to move us towards a renewable energy economy and a mass home insulation programme. This would cut domestic energy bills and keep people warm.”
Notes
[1] Sunak reshuffle: Shapps named energy secretary in department shake-up – BBC News
[2] BP scales back climate targets as profits hit record – BBC News
[3] UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2021: summary (publishing.service.gov.uk)
[4] Greens call on government to bring in carbon tax at COP26 | The Green Party