Tackling Climate Change, Reducing Poverty

This report from a new coalition of the UK's leading environmental and social justice groups shows that the poorest people in the UK will be worst affected by the effects of climate change and, unless measures to combat climate change are carefully tailored, they will hit the poorest hardest: taxing fossil fuels to reduce emissions would make it harder for people on low incomes to buy food and use transport. However, it also illustrates that tackling climate change offers a huge opportunity for boosting the economy and reducing poverty in the UK. Several case studies are featured of projects that have simultaneously cut emissions and helped people on low incomes e.g. in a deprived community in Braunstone, Leicester, an alliance of local groups helped raise funds for photovoltaic solar energy systems to be placed on the roofs of 50 south-facing houses. Local small firms were given training to install the solar panels, which have now cut carbon emissions on the estate and lifted rural residents out of fuel poverty. Projects such as these, the coalition believes, must now be rolled out nationwide.