Can someone explain this to me please?
There\’s something in the budget about firm and legally enforceable targets for CO2 emissions.
And that fines could be levied if they were not met.
Who is to pay these fines to whom?
I simply cannot get my head around this (or I\’m missing information).
Do taxpayers end up getting fined so that more money is given to the Treasury?
Eh?
So far as I know, there is not a threat of fines. We have firm and legally enforceable targets, but no consequences for failing to achieve them. Equally nonsensical.
There is little reason to believe that the 2020 emissions target will turn out to be any more enforceable than the government’s other ‘legally binding’ target – to eradicate fuel poverty among vulnerable households in England by 2010 – which, unsurprisingly, is certain to be missed.
St barak of obama decreed last week that greenhouse gases are to be classified as pollutants. Which would appear to mean that we would require a pollution emission permit to breath out (Co2) or fart ( methane). Interesting, that should pay of world debt. Breathing out tax.
Look up the Carbon Reduction Commitment – fines are paid to the Secretary of State (in England) for non-compliance by companies using more than a threshold level of energy.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/business/crc/timeline.htm
Have you ever read the Climate Change Act? For some reason, it’s got a section on plastic bags in the middle. The section on Carboncrime penalties is number 29, where the recipient is described as a “national authority”, which in turn is defined in section 21(3) to be the Secretary of State or one of its Gaelic counterparts.
So yes, your guess was right. But it wasn’t exactly a hard thing to guess, now was it?