Fund Climate Measures By Using Taxation, Says Report

Money from general taxation should be used to help tackle the climate crisis, a new report says.

- Matt Mathers

A report by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) says the global climate crisis is such an emergency that public finances should be made available to help Scotland meet its climate goals.

The report, put together by a coalition of environmental and international development non-governmental organisations, acknowledges the financial pressures created by the cost of living crisis and argues that actions to tackle it can and must complement those required to avert “even deeper climate chaos”.

The study recommends measures including increasing income tax revenue to fund action on climate change and says that rises should fall mostly on higher and top-rate taxpayers. Other recommendations include increasing windfall taxes on the fossil fuel industry and removing tax breaks and subsidies from it.

Mike Robinson, chair of SCCS, said: “If we are serious about tackling the climate emergency, we must use our tax and spending powers to drive faster change, while increasing the finance available. This is clearly a tough time financially, but the climate emergency hasn’t gone away and, if we don’t ensure we increase the funding spent on tackling it, we are taking a huge gamble with our future and risk simply lurching from one short-term crisis to the next.”