Climate report urges free local transport and green grants
Efforts to drive down climate emissions should deliver a "people's dividend" of improvements to lives, homes, jobs and transport, a report has urged.
The report from think tank IPPR'S cross-party Environmental Justice Commission says the transition to a lowcarbon world must be fair and involve people directly – or the public will wield an effective "veto" on it.
It makes more than 100 recommendations, including an upgraded local public transport system that is free at the point of use by 2030 – starting withfreebustravelby2025–to make green travel easy.
It also proposes a £7.5 billion a year "Greengo" scheme – akin to the help-to-buy programme – to provide a onestop shop of loans and grants to help households insulate their homes and switch to green heating and transport.
It urges the government to hugely scale up public investment for climate and nature action, raising it by £30bn a year, and to tackle the two crises together, while all workers in high carbon industries should be offered retraining opportunities.
The commission is making its final recommendations after conducting a series of citizens' juries around the country, with thousands of hours of discussion, on how to shift to a greener world.
The UK has a legally binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions to "net zero" by 2050, which requires cutting pollution to as near to zero as possible and offsetting any that remains with measure such as planting trees.
The IPPR report comes as the UK prepares to host crucial global climate talks in Glasgow, and in the wake of warnings from government climate advisers that ministers are not doing enough to meet the goals to cut emissions.
While concerns have been raised that achieving net zero – which will include moves such as shifting away from gas boilers and petrol and diesel cars – will hit the poor, the report says it can and must deliver benefits such as cheaper energy bills, warmer homes and improving health.
And the shift to net zero could create 1.7 million jobs by 2035 in sectors from transports to retrofitting homes, IPPR analysis suggests.
The citizens' juries called for national leadership to drive the change.