news20091026gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Climate change]
Green taxes 'under threat from Treasury', claims Greenpeace
> Influential thinktank the Green Fiscal Commission calls for fuel duties to be tripled over next 10 years
> New report, The Case for Green Fiscal Reform, has backing of Lord Turner and cross-party support
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 October 2009 20.16 GMT Article history

Greenpeace and other development agencies have written to the prime minister calling on him to exercise authority over the Treasury and stop it blocking vital climate change initiatives.

The call comes ahead of a report to be published tomorrow by the Green Fiscal Commission (GFC), which will call for a dramatic £150bn shake-up in the country's fiscal system – including a £3,300 tax on new cars and a tripling of fuel duties over the next decade, to be balanced by a cut in income tax and national insurance.

The non-governmental organisations claim that Alistair Darling's department is preventing a green tax being slapped on the aviation and shipping industries that would fund mitigation schemes in poorer countries, despite Gordon Brown's support.

And they fear that calls in the GFC report for a package of new green taxes on businesses and households at a time of economic difficulty will also be stopped by Whitehall mandarins.

"The Treasury has been a block on progressive action historically and the same is true today," said John Sauven, executive director at Greenpeace. "We have written a joint letter to the prime minister because it is disgraceful that the Treasury theocracy is blocking a tax on bunker fuel [shipping or aviation fuel] that he himself supports.

"We fear the same could happen here [to the GFC report]. Yet green taxes are one of the critical planks in tackling climate change as far as we are concerned, although a key thing is to ensure that we safeguard social justice," he added.

The Labour government came into power promising a shift to a policy of the "polluter pays" but Greenpeace believes it began to retreat from that position, notably after the fuel protests in August 2000 caused oil refineries to be blockaded and widespread disruption.

The Case for Green Fiscal Reform, to be launched tomorrow by Lord Turner, head of the committee on climate change and chairman of the Financial Services Authority, seeks a rise in the proportion of environmental-based taxes in the overall tax take from 7% to 15%. When Labour came to power, environmental-based taxation accounted for 9% of the tax take.

A £300 tax would be placed on new cars, increasing annually until it reaches £3,300 by 2020, while a fuel "escalator" would be introduced to increase petrol duties by 10% per annum. The report has cross-party support.

Paul Ekins, professor of energy and environment policy at University College London and author of the GFC report, said the total impact of the package would be almost exactly neutral to the economy as a whole. It would create 500,000 jobs and reward consumers who shy away from heavy CO2 consumption, but knock car and oil companies, and those who make money out of a high-carbon economy.

"Media reporting of these kinds of initiatives tends to concentrate on the losers but [the proposal from the GFC] is good news and puts money in the pocket of those who are not polluters," said Ekins.

The shadow climate change secretary, Greg Barker, said that the Conservatives would consider the report's recommendations seriously.

The transport lobby went on the attack today, with the Freight Transport Association (FTA) saying the government was already using too much stick and very little carrot with road users.

"Our members use road, rail and sea where they can but the infrastructure is not there at the moment to make [low-carbon alternatives] more viable. We met the Treasury the other week and it admitted the fuel duty was not an environmental tax but a revenue raiser," said Jo Tanner, a spokeswoman for the FTA.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said it could not pass comment before seeing the report but was alarmed at the idea of levies on new cars at a time when the industry is in recession.


[Environment > Pollution]
Sichuan earthquake survivors 'poisoned by pollution'
Residents report crops failing and health problems as aluminium plant coats earth in white dust
Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 October 2009 12.33 GMT Article history

Survivors of the Sichuan earthquake face a new threat in the form of pollution from an aluminium plant that has been hailed by the government as a symbol of reconstruction.

Villagers near the factory in Wenchuan county – the area worst hit by the disaster – have told the Guardian their health and crops have been damaged by airborne "white flake" pollution that falls and then covers the soil.

Though more than a year has passed since the quake killed 68,000 people and destroyed millions of homes on 12 May 2008, many residents still live in tents.

The local government has put a priority on rebuilding the economy, partly through the more than five-fold expansion of the Aba Aluminium production line owned by Bosai Corporation – one of Sichuan's biggest exporters. This provides much-needed jobs in the disaster area, but they come at a heavy environmental price, according to nearby residents who complain their harvests have collapsed because of contamination.

"The expansion of the aluminium factory has really affected our lives. I used to grow vegetables and walnuts, but the pollution has ruined the plants and trees," a local woman told the Guardian by telephone. "The powder from the plant floats in the air, and leaves a coating of white sediment on the ground."

To boost the family income, she said her husband took a job in the factory but he had to leave after less than six months because a rash broke out over his body.

Many local residents work in the factory, which pays more than 1,000 yuan (£90) per month – a reasonable income in rural China. But there may be hazards. "We work in bad conditions. The workshops are thick with dust," said an employee. "The pollution became very bad after the expansion. I heard it is because the cleaning devices are not functioning properly."

The employee, whose name like that of the woman is withheld to avoid retribution from local officials, said his 100-tree orchard had failed to yield a harvest this year. Chinese conservationists say the bee population has also been badly affected.

The earthquake struck a day before the upgrade of the aluminium factory was supposed to begin. Local leaders have pushed ahead with the plan as part of the reconstruction effort.

President Hu Jintao and prime minister Wen Jiabao have visited the facility and encouraged the plant's managers to set an example of improved technology standards and efficiency. Falling aluminium prices and continued infrastructure problems have made this difficult.

Local officials and factory executives insist the factory operates according to national standards. "The factory has passed its environmental impact assessment. Once its environment protection equipment operates, emissions will definitely meet standards," said Yang Jian, the head of Wenchuan's environment protection bureau.

He said the bureau has not received any complaints about the factory: "The accusations are not true."

A factory director, who gave only his surname, Cao, said the company has an effective system for emission reduction that was working.