The government has once again been urged to rethink its carbon cutting policies, after a new report revealed a serious discrepancy between how much the richest and poorest of society benefit from emission reduction measures.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation will unveil new analysis showing the government’s current mix of carbon reduction policies, including the Green Deal and feed-in tariff schemes, have the potential to meet a target to cut carbon emissions 34 per cent by 2020.
But the report found that while the policies should protect the average consumer from the impacts of rising fuel prices, as the government claims, they will also increase the divide between rich and poor.
The report argues that the richest households are responsible for more than three times the emissions of the poorest 10 per cent through household and transport fuel use. But they are also more likely to take advantage of government incentive schemes to reduce their energy bills, such as installing solar panels to receive feed-in tariff payments.
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