Oliver Haynes’ excellent analysis (Five years on, the world is failing to learn the gilets jaunes’ lesson about class and climate, 17 November) missed an opportunity to propose a practical solution. Four provinces of Canada have been using a form of climate income (AKA carbon fee and dividend), where a fee is levied on carbon fuel extraction or importation, and the revenue gets redistributed to citizens via a dividend in order to cope with rising prices. Switzerland has a carbon tax and it redistributes most of the revenue to citizens. Austria has the Klimabonus doing the same. Democrats in the US Congress introduced bills, but of course there was no support from the opposing party.
The UK and EU are locked into emission trading schemes that do not support citizens as fuel prices rise. Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Citizens’ Climate International are promoting the carbon fee and income redistribution model, but it’s an uphill battle. The government could support us better by implementing examples that have been shown to work in other countries.
Joe Grimm
Edinburgh
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