Poorer households could be exempted from contributing to the costs of making the UK carbon neutral under proposals for a review of how renewable energy subsidies are funded. The Committee on Climate Change is calling on the Treasury to consider funding subsidies via taxation rather than the present system of imposing levies on energy bills paid by all households. The existing system is regressive because a wealthy household pays the same amount as a poor one with a similar level of energy consumption. The average household already pays about £100 a year in green levies to subsidise wind and solar farms. The committee, which advises the government on its climate targets, estimates this will rise to £150 by 2030 as renewable power capacity expands. The total costs of the transition to carbon neutrality will be much higher than this as it will mean replacing 26 million gas boilers and 34 million petrol and diesel cars with low or zero emission alternatives. The committee wants the Treasury review to be wide-ranging and cover how all those costs are funded. It made the recommendation for the review in its report on Thursday calling for the UK to set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Times 4thy May 2019 read more »