{"id":45396,"date":"2019-06-25T08:04:18","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T07:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=45396"},"modified":"2019-06-25T08:04:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T07:04:18","slug":"the-governments-new-policy-on-the-climate-crisis-is-let-us-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2019\/06\/25\/the-governments-new-policy-on-the-climate-crisis-is-let-us-burn\/","title":{"rendered":"The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new policy on the  climate crisis is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclet us burn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2019\/jun\/24\/hmrc-pushes-massive-vat-increase-for-new-solar-battery-systems\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">features an article<\/a> this morning that tells us a great deal about the priorities of the UK government when it comes to the climate crisis. As they note:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Homes hoping to shrink their carbon footprints by installing a solar-battery system face a steep VAT increase from October under new laws proposed by <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/hmrc\" data-link-name=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">HMRC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury put forward legislation on Monday to raise VAT for home solar-battery systems from 5% to 20%, on the same day that MPs are debating the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2019\/jun\/11\/theresa-may-commits-to-net-zero-uk-carbon-emissions-by-2050\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">government\u2019s new net<\/a><a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2019\/jun\/11\/theresa-may-commits-to-net-zero-uk-carbon-emissions-by-2050\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"> zero carbon target for 2050<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And as they add:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Meanwhile, home coal supplies will continue to receive the lower VAT rate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s as if their policy is \u2018let us burn.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In my book The Joy of Tax I described tax as the single most powerful mechanism available to a government to influence behaviour and shape the society it wants in what might be called \u2018normal times\u2019. I stand by that. In which case this decision tells us just how seriously this government is really taking the climate crisis.<\/p>\n<p>I suggest that you worry, a lot. And most especially for younger generations.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian features an article this morning that tells us a great deal about the priorities of the UK government when it comes to the<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2019\/06\/25\/the-governments-new-policy-on-the-climate-crisis-is-let-us-burn\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-new-deal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}