{"id":8483,"date":"2023-11-30T08:39:49","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T08:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8483"},"modified":"2023-11-30T08:39:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T08:39:49","slug":"lets-help-the-poor-not-punish-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2023\/11\/30\/lets-help-the-poor-not-punish-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Let's help the poor, not punish them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2023\/nov\/20\/revealed-huge-climate-impact-of-the-middle-classes-carbon-divide\">Guardian article<\/a> argues for carbon taxes that target those who can afford to play. \u00a0It quotes IEA data that provides energy-related CO<sub>2 <\/sub>emissions per person in 2021. \u00a0It says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\"In rich countries, the richest 10% of people have carbon footprints about 15 times greater than the poorest 10%. \u00a0In China, South Africa, Brazil and India, however, the top 10% cause 30-40 times more emissions than the bottom 10%.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Intuitively, we all knew that, but it's good to have some up to date numbers.<\/p>\n<p>The article is arguing for carbon taxes that focus on those who have the resources to change their high-carbon lifestyles without damaging their wellbeing, \u00a0Ruth Townend, a research fellow at the Chatham House thinktank in the UK, is quoted:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-1kas69x\">\u201cWithout paying attention to inequality in policymaking, it will be impossible to have a just transition to a more sustainable society. ... Policy sticks, such as taxation, should only be used to target those who have capacity to make cuts, ie those who are better off, whereas policy carrots, such as subsidies and support for lifestyle change, are needed for those who are unfairly burdened at the moment by rising fuel and food prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>She said that a blanket approach by governments to shift to green lifestyles unfairly disadvantaged the poorest in society and undermined trust. \u00a0This is in line with the Paris Agreement where such safeguards were emphasised. \u00a0Just as I was arguing over the Summer in relation to ULEZ, EVs and the gas \/ oil boiler replacements.<\/p>\n<p>It's not yet clear that UK administrations fully understand the importance of this; or that the many advocates of climate action understand it either. \u00a0Can it be that they think that there are no poor people in the UK; or that such folk don't matter \u2013 or vote?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent\u00a0Guardian article argues for carbon taxes that target those who can afford to play. \u00a0It quotes IEA data that provides energy-related CO2 emissions per person in 2021. \u00a0It says: \"In rich countries, the richest 10% of people have carbon...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-talks-and-presentations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}