Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder of Ovo Energy, has launched a campaign called ZeroC, a campaign to shift the world to a zero carbon future, calling for a General Carbon Charge,

one which would account for carbon pollution within the price of goods and return the money raised to citizens in the form of a “carbon dividend”

This sounds very much like our own Carbon Fee & Dividend.

We won’t reach net-zero without a general price on carbon that protects Britain’s poorest

We agree, and this is exactly why we need carbon dividends, returning the revenue of any carbon charge (or fee) back to the people in the form of equal dividend payments. Those with large carbon footprints will pay out more in carbon charge than they get back in dividend but the poorest in society, with small carbon footprints, will get back more in dividend than they pay out in carbon charge.

Stephen Fitzpatrick is putting £1 million of his own money into this campaign

to convene a group of scientists, economists and business leaders to work through the challenges of implementing such a policy in the UK

The aim is that at the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) the UK will back up its net zero commitment with an undertaking to introduce a general price on carbon.

Leading economists, agree that a proper price for carbon is the most cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary. Simply put, we will not reach net-zero until we measure and price all carbon emissions. Two hundred years ago Britain led the world in the industrial revolution. At that time, huge advances in technology created great wealth for some, but not all. Now we have the opportunity to lead the world again, to swing our economy behind the zero carbon revolution. Let’s make sure this time the benefits are spread fairly across society.

See this article on edie and https://www.zeroc.org.uk/ for more details. You can also follow #ZeroC on Twitter @zeroc_official and on Instagram and Stephen Fitzpatrick is on Medium.