Lord speaks out on carbon tax

Greenbang recently rocked up to a dinner at the Irish Embassy to meet a few people from the sustainability industry in, yes you guessed it, Ireland.

The UK’s Lord Turner, who worked with Sir Nigel Stern on his report – the Economics of Climate Change – gave an after-dinner speech. He said clean air and a healthy environment were all now part of consumer demand, especially in those countries that struggle to achieve that now.

But he also indicated carbon emissions could one day be taxed if the UK is to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by the year 2050 (as his pal Lord Nigel sets out).

“We can deal with climate change and it is doable but it won’t happen automatically,” he said. “It needs government policy. First you need to make expensive to emit. We need to put a price on carbon. That’s the way we change consumer behaviour.”

Turner added that it was only through direct regulation from governments and taxes that the world could slow climate change…