The Jist The Jist Of June | Page 8

Why It’s The Perfect Time For A Carbon Tax In The UK In 2010, David Cameron promised that his gov- ernment was going to be the greenest government ever. Yet, since then, the Con- servatives have pushed back on numerous environmental measures, including removing the subsidies for solar panel in- stallation and putting a hold on all onshore wind-farm con- struction. The UK Government has committed to reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, something they can realistically only achieve if they deliver a carbon negative economy; they must remove carbon from the atmosphere – though carbon capture tech- nology is starting to become much more mainstream than it was a few years ago so this might be possible in the future. The EU target for 2020 is to en- 8