Green taxes: Is there a changing climate? – The Yorkshire Post says

This is reflected by Ipsos Mori polling which found Britons want to see increased investment in renewable energy, a ban on products linked to deforestation and more ambitious plans to help cut global emissions.

And, at face value, it vindicates the Government’s proactive approach ahead of the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow this November which teenage activist Greta Thunberg now intends to attend alongside global leaders.

What is less clear, however, is the extent to which householders are willing to tolerate an increase in taxes, and other costs, as part of Britain’s net zero agenda.

One of the reported tensions between Boris Johnson, who is keen to portray his green credentials, and Rishi Sunak, who is desperately trying to bring some semblance of order to the public finances, this issue is made even more difficult – politically and economically – by both the costs of the Covid pandemic and the Tory party’s undertaking at the 2019 not to raise taxes.

Yet the dilemmas do not end here. To what extent, for example, is Mr Johnson, a libertarian at heart, willing to embrace interventionist policies like road pricing in order for Britain to attempt to fulfil its obligations to the wider world as he comes under pressure to scrap plans to compel householders to replace gas boilers with costly heat pumps?

As such, it will be the public response to these questions that will reveal the extent to which there’s a genuine climate for change on this defining issue.

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