Carbon Dividend
The health and wellbeing of the biosphere is integral to, and deeply interwoven with, human health and wellbeing.
In the light of the existential challenge to humanity that is climate change, it is urgent that that action is urgently undertaken to reduce damaging emissions. One way to do this is by taxing those emissions by means of a carbon tax, so encouraging behavioural change by residents and business.
We want behaviour change, but we want this tax to be a progressive one and overall to have a positive impact on the lives of Irish people. Under our proposal, 90% of the carbon tax collected will be redistributed to the Irish people, with the remaining 10% to be spent as part of Ireland´s aid programme specifically on climate adaptation measures in the developing world.
This redistribution of Carbon Dividend will be given to every resident of Ireland as compensation for the climate change being caused in the state by carbon emissions.
Carbon tax is a way to change consumer and business behaviour in order to reach our targets of 50% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. A carbon tax rate to €200 per tonnne over the 3 years would bring a 20% reduction in carbon and €4 billion in revenue a year for the Exchequer.
Those who are negatively affected by carbon emission and who are not big polluters will be compensated by the Carbon Dividend.
Distribution will be done on the basis of age, with the youngest residents receiving the least amount and older residents receiving a larger amount in a ratio which mirrors the current differential between contributory old age pension and employment benefit.
Green Party policies for sectors such as Agriculture, Energy and Transport, will provide the alternative mechanisms for those who wish to stop polluting such as rewards for environmentally sound land use, cheaper and more available renewable energy and better, cheaper public transport an availability of electric scooters cars and bikes.
Policy revised: June 2020
UN Sustainable Development Goals: 8, 10, 13, 17
