“We take in roughly €400 million at the current carbon tax rate. That money, if ringfenced, is a good starting point to give money back to people through grants to better insulate their houses and switch to electric cars.”
He added: “There is no point in taking money off people and giving some of it back to them if it doesn’t change behaviour. The whole point of responding to this climate emergency is that we all change behaviour. All the fee and dividend model does is to facilitate people to buy even more home heating oil if they know there is a rebate coming. It doesn’t incentivise them to insulate the house.”
Mr Sherlock said it was disingenuous of the Green Party to suggest it gave money back to poorer people. “It only gives money back to poorer people if the economic model on which it’s based assumes poorer people will insulate their homes with the dividend cheques they receive. The reality is that it works against people who don’t have the money to insulate their houses or to purchase hybrids because the capital outlay needed for upgrading houses and cars requires the taking on debt.
That was why ringfencing carbon taxes at least created a fund where monies could be made available for householders to retrofit houses to tackle fuel poverty, and make the switch away from diesel, Mr Sherlock said. “Sending someone a cheque for €100 a year as a dividend might even prove a disincentive to behavioural change because it could signal that one is absolved of any need to decarbonise their lives. The cheque alone becomes the signal that the citizen has done her bit for the environment,” he said.