Extinction Rebellion activists braved the heatwave to display banners on the A329M motorway last week.
One banner bore the slogan ‘Your Planet Needs You’ while the other said ‘Tax the Rich’.
The group says: “Heatwaves are becoming fiercer and more frequent and not addressing the climate crisis will be far more costly than tackling it.”
“There is a growing call for the super-wealthy to be taxed. According to Oxfam, a 2% tax on extreme wealth over £10 million could raise £24 billion every year. 78% of the British public say they support this. Money raised could supercharge the UK’s efforts to tackle climate change.
“Greenpeace has called for a one-off “National Renewal Tax” of 2.5% on individual wealth above £10m, to be paid annually over the five years of this parliamentary term, which could raise between £130bn and £183bn.
“This tax would be paid by 0.1% of the UK population. The National Renewal Tax on the super-rich could raise between £26bn and £36.6bn on average each year. “
Funds raised would be ‘more than enough’ to pay for insulating homes, supporting vulnerable households with winter energy bills, providing free bus travel to under 25s, implementing a scrappage scheme for polluting vehicles, retraining works for green energy jobs, upgrading ports, and supporting farmers to clean up waters and return land to nature.
“According to a new report, the potential UK economic losses by 2040 due to stranded fossil-fuel assets is £113bn. Of the £88bn held in fossil fuel assets by UK pension funds, around £15.2bn is at risk of stranding by 2040.[4] Yet BP and Shell are backing off from their ‘green’ promises and other fossil fuel companies are still pushing ahead with projects.
“A growing number of climate groups are campaigning for the introduction of a wealth tax. The Pay Up campaign is calling on the government to bring in a series of wealth taxes as an alternative to spending cuts.
“Climate groups say the revenue from the ultra-rich could fund investment, restore crumbling public services and help tackle the climate emergency. Opponents have raised concerns that such a move would result in the ultra-wealthy leaving the country.
“However, experts say there is no evidence of a mass millionaire exodus from the UK, with the overall number of millionaires and billionaires having risen steadily over the past two decades. At the same time, the government has little idea of how many billionaires pay tax.”
