Saving the Planet should not have to Cost the Earth - 20th September 2008

Is it naive to think that, now that the Credit Crunch has taken hold, the Environment has lost its place in the list of public concerns? The view seems to be taken that, as fuel is so expensive, this will automatically reduce car use and therefore pollution, and the result will somehow be beneficial to the planet.

I don’t go along with this view, as the Credit Crunch cannot last for ever, and sooner or later we will all be able to afford to travel as we used to, and in any event, fuel will have to be found to heat our houses this winter. And, of course, whether we like it or not, nothing we can do is going to stop the Chinese and the Indians from polluting the planet.

When the Credit Crunch eases, we can expect to hear government ministers call again for more “environmental taxes”, with the stated intention of saving the planet. In actual fact, we all know that the real purpose of these taxes is not to save the planet at all – it’s simply a new excuse for raising money for the exchequer: we are already over taxed as it is.

The trouble is that we have all been conditioned to the idea that saving the planet means we all have to suffer. This means more taxes and more regulations – and the result is more expense for hard pressed British industry. So, is there another way?

We could look at the Environmental challenge as an opportunity. If the energy of the Sun and of the wind could be harnessed efficiently, this would reduce our energy costs, as sunlight and wind are free. In places like China and Cyprus, I have seen new houses and blocks of flats built with solar cells on the roof. They are used to reduce water heating costs. The problem is that, in the UK, installation costs make solar and wind power uneconomic, particularly in our weather.

Environment taxes would have more credibility if only the money raised from them was earmarked for environmental purposes.  If the government was really serious about using taxation to save the planet, all money collected from environmental taxes would be used for environmental purposes – to increase the grants for installing solar panels and wind turbines, for example, so as to provide a well needed incentive.

One of the disadvantages of private enterprise is that, once a new invention is patented, huge sums have to be paid to the patent holder, before any other manufacturer can use his invention. If the government were to fund research into pollution free forms of energy production, the patent could be government owned, and the government could licence use of patented discoveries at a price which might encourage industry to use them, and the cost of the research could be recovered, making the research self-financing. This could lead to very much more efficient solar and wind energy use, and to other environment saving economies. The expertise could be exported to India and China.

We need to think positively about setting up a system which rewards the use of natural energy, instead of using taxation to punish us for using essential hydrocarbon fuels.