Brits fear bankruptcies of power suppliers, support green taxes, don’t believe government on biomass

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A trio of environmentally-related opinion polls out today provides a snapshot of Britons

  • favouring personal taxes based on carbon consumption
  • distrusting the Johnson government on its biomass stance, and
  • increasingly fearing to switch power suppliers in case the new retailer goes bust

Campaigners at the Green Alliance report that 60% of want to see individuals taxed more heavily according to their carbon-emitting behaviours. 80% of voters believe Westminster & Whitehall should take the lead on tackling the climate catastrophe, and 62% want the government to spend more than currently on the issue.

Support is widespread, the survey found, for  ‘polluter pays’ approaches taxation. The group estimates that levies now benefitting the environment account for only 7% of the UK’s tax take.  Those explicitly designed to promote good environmental behaviour, such as energy’s climate change levy, account for 0.5% of HMRC’s collection.

Libby Peake of the Green Alliance said, “Tax is one of the most powerful tools government has to deliver policy. In the fight against climate change and nature’s decline, it’s not being used to anything like its full potential”.

“This survey shows people want a change. There is a mandate for the Treasury to reset its approach in its forthcoming Net Zero Review”

A charge of hypocrisy against the government’s attitude to biomass-powered generation of electricity emerges from a separate survey of 2,000 Brits.  This country is Europe’s largest user of wood pellets, usually  cultivated overseas.

Commissioned by pressure group Cut Carbon Not Forests, the study found 80% of respondents, and 78% of Conservative voters, believe there’s a double standard in the government allegedly supporting forest loss outside the UK so as to obtain feedstock for this country’s biomass power generation.

Seventy-two percent of respondents maintain such encouragement by the UK government discredits its target to eliminate 78% of 1990-level emissions by 2035.

Bankruptcy fears centring on smaller retailers recently debuted in Britain’s fiercely competitive energy market is a growing factor in consumers’ decisions to switch, Ofgem’s annual survey of users has found.

Doubts about their supplier’s continuing viability now ranks fourth among risks now perceived by energy users about account switching, the research reports.

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