“Let’s save the planet by shifting the tax burden from work to greenhouse gas emissions”. This is the European citizens’ initiative (ICE) that the European Commission decided to register yesterday.
The initiative asks among other things to ridistribute a substantial portion of the revenues from carbon pricing to low-income families, shifting taxation from work to the consumption of non-renewable resources and strengthening the EU’s social climate fund.
The organizers of the initiative, explains Brussels in a note, invite the Commission to strengthen the “Ready for 55%” package” and the EU carbon pricing system by establishing a faster phase-out of free allowances and removing the carbon price cap to achieve emissions reduction targets.
They also ask for the redistribution of a substantial part of revenues resulting from carbon pricing on low-income households, strengthening the EU Social Climate Fund and promoting the establishment of a “Climate Club” in which countries adopt a robust carbon pricing system, taking into account the redistribution of the revenues thus obtained to low-income families.
The decision to register the initiative is of a legal nature. At this stage the Commission has not yet analyzed the proposals on their merits. Starting yesterday, the date of registration of the initiative, the organizers have six months to start collecting signatures. If the initiative will get within a year a million statements of supportreaching the minimum number of signatories foreseen in at least seven different Member States, the Commission will be required to decide whether or not to intervene in response to the request.
