Fee & Dividend Comes Up In Ireland

In 2016 Ireland established a Citizens Assembly consisting of 100 citizens chosen at random. This group met over 12 weekends to be informed by experts and to consider five questions, one of which was, "How can the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change?" The assembly concluded in April 2018, and 80% of the members said they would be willing to pay a higher carbon tax. Following the non-partisan work of the assembly, a cross-party parliamentary committee was established in July 2018 to develop the assembly's recommendations into a national climate plan. The committee published its report at the end of March 2019, with agreement on everything except a carbon tax. By October, the Irish Parliament must finalize the carbon pricing policy for Ireland.

On July 11, Professor Kathryn Harrison from the University of British Columbia, Graham Caswell (CCL Ireland's leader), and two other experts gave presentations to representatives from all political parties in the Irish Parliament on the "Canadian Model" of carbon pricing (a.k.a. carbon fee and dividend). Graham called the presentations "a symphony of evidence-based arguments by four experts on carbon fee and dividend."

For more information about the event, read this article. 

Carbon fee and dividend is not a sure thing for Ireland, but it is being seriously considered by the Irish Parliament, as can be seen in a video produced by the Irish Prime Time show. 

Follow CCL Ireland on Twitter to see how the conversation develops.