What would you pay to turn the world green?

Skyp-rat

I for one wouldn't mind paying more, if it was ring-fenced, but most people know the money will help finance pointless wars and the pensions of those at Westminster who've already got their noses firmly in the trough.

nrsql

Does anyone really think that anything that happens in Britain will have more than a negligible affect on the global environment?
Unfortunately not. We have also probably lost what influence we had over the countries that could have an effect.

I would happily pay extra tax to improve the environment in Britain - but I believe this would just be swallowed up in extra admin/PR costs. If I could trust the government to use the money for the purpose stated rather than just to help balance their books again I would go for it.
I would expect this tax to be used to reduce the amount already spent from the central coffers rather than to add to that amount.
Or is that being cynical?

I'm expecting another statement shortly that billions of new money will be spent on the environment over the next 10 years (restated many times of course) - that'll be a few thousand in the next few years but mostly after the next election.

mrBlue

Come on, people! We all know that Politicians just love to rip us off by whatever taxes they can get away with! Green taxes aren't going to save the planet - the money would be used to feather the beds of MPs, regional assemblies, the undemocratic and unwanted EU parliament or EU enlargement or anything else THEY think is their favourite cause. - The latest stealth Tax - Roof tax - ever heard of that? has just been introduced in Milton Keynes at the rate of £18500 per new dwelling (a 1 bedroom flat is a dwelling) in order to pay for "The infrastructure" - which central government - having dictated that we have to suffer 70000 new dwellings - refuses to pay for. Good wheeze, eh? A nurse buying an "affordable home" now has to pay £18500 roof tax plus 1% stamp duty on that tax. They'd better not tell ME I have to pay "Green Taxes"!

scrunge

Thoroughly depressed, reading all this.

The problem is, you can't change human nature, many of us are lazy, and many don't give a toss about the environment. Those that do are often dismissed as 'tree-huggers'.

Whatever we do as individuals in this country is negligible unless other countries follow suit - but that isn't an excuse for being profligate.

No political party (apart from the greens maybe) would dare propose increasing income tax by 4p in the pound because it would be political suicide - unless we can get consensus across the political spectrum.

I think our only hope is for politicians worldwide to become convinced of the economic necessity of pusruing environmentally-friendly policies. Let's hope that the fact that most of our oil comes from regions that are unstable (e.g. middle east) or anti-America (e.g. Venezuela) may encourage the US to invest in alternative energy sources. Until this happens the future looks bleak.

MiserlyMartin

mrBlue wrote:

- The latest stealth Tax - Roof tax - ever heard of that? has just been introduced in Milton Keynes at the rate of £18500 per new dwelling (a 1 bedroom flat is a dwelling) in order to pay for "The infrastructure" - which central government - having dictated that we have to suffer 70000 new dwellings - refuses to pay for. Good wheeze, eh? A nurse buying an "affordable home" now has to pay £18500 roof tax plus 1% stamp duty on that tax. They'd better not tell ME I have to pay "Green Taxes"!

Hello Mr Blue, thats interesting - roof tax. I haven't heard about this and I live in Milton keynes. Who pays? The buyer directly when they purchase the property, or is it the developer who will recoup it buy adding it to the purchase price? This doesn't surprise me much - MK has been shortchanged by central government for years. They now want to force all thse new houses on us but don't want to stump up the cash for the infrastructure!

Green taxes. Absolute rubbish. Why? For these reasons:

1. These will do nothing to reduce our emissions in the UK - the money will go to plug up Gordon Brown's budget blackhole.

2. People will continue to fly and use their cars - because they have to, to live. Muggers, peodophiles and rapists are still on the redways and streets and its not about kids being too fat and lazy to walk to school - its about parents making sure their kids are safe from attack. This is all down to the fact this government has failed to build any more prisons so criminals are not being locked up for long enough if at all and they are out to reoffend. If more of our already extortionate taxes were spent on this and having police actually on the street rather than doing paperwork or catching a motorist a few MPH over the limit (raising more tax), then kids and people would feel safe to walk the streets instead of using their cars to go everywhere.

3. Even if you do believe in this principle then we already pay environmental tax - fuel duty at 45p per litre + VAT. No reason to charge us more.

4. The global warming theory has yet to be proven. There are plenty of scientists around the world including the UK, who think that the warming could be naturally occuring and that CO2 levels rise and fall naturally also. The Ozone layer is repairing now.

5. Even if global warming is our fault, the UK contributes to only 2% of the total emissions. So even if we reduced these to zero and lived in darkness for the next 30 years China's growth could wipe out that reduction easily.

In all this is a pointless excuse for taxing us more and it will all be for nothing however you look at it.

Coveredinbees!!!!

I think it's pretty arrogant of the human race to assume they can 'save the world'. It's been here for billions of years doing it's own thing, we're just on the ride. If it wants to wipe the human plague off it, it will. End of story.

Green tax do me a favour.

teddyco

A leading British scientist recently reversed his decision on global warming and said that he is not sure now if man is truly causing the phenomena called "global warming". He feels that global warming may be a natural reaction to the increase in solar flare activity and volcanic eruptions.

At the end of the day, do we REALLY know for sure if man is causing the warming of our atmosphere without allowing our scientists to do the research and examine the data?

Frugal_Foxy

You summed it up FarthingSaver.

On a non-green issue, if the government didn't give all our taxes away to private companies who are building and running our hospitals and schools - and now our fire stations - then they would have money left for green issues without asking us for more. I would put this 'NHS' issue up alongside war crimes for the disgusting amount of money that is wasted! You only have to see that pension funds are buying up these government contracts to realise how much money the government is paying for them
:sad:

Thin_Wallet_2

Is there anybody left in this country who is stupid enough to believe that income tax rises will go towards resolving the so called green issues?

Apart from two jags......

Former_MSE_Natasha

Poll Title: Poll Started 30 October 2006: What would you pay to turn the world green? This week's 'Stern Report' says as well as the damage to the planet, unless we tackle the environment it'll cost the world £3,680 billion (20% of the world's wealth). Yet to fix the problem would cost just 1% of the world's income each year. My back of the envelope calculaton is that if this was all through income tax, we'd each need to pay 4p in the pound more. What would you be willing to pay?

F. The full 4p in the pound - 37.6% (1257 Votes)
A. Forget that, I want taxes cut - 25.9% (868 Votes)
C. 1p in the pound - 12.9% (431 Votes)
D. 2p in the pound - 11.6% (387 Votes)
B. Nothing - 10% (336 Votes)
E. 3p in the pound - 2% (66 Votes)

Total Votes: 3345

Thanks to everyone who voted