Lord Deben:

We considered all sorts of things amongst ourselves but, in a sense, we eschew commenting on taxation systems. Our job is to fix the outcome and we have to prove that is possible within the present context. We would perhaps say that if the speed of the switch to electric cars was increased, or if more was done about land use, a certain level could be reached, or through a whole series of other things that the Government decides. I can conceive of situations in which we might suggest the Government ought to look at the taxation system in particular ways but the problem is that, in the end, we have to be practical. We do not know what the result of a particular tax would be and, in a sense, it is where a government should be acting. The taxation system is, in the end, the prime role of a government and it must make that decision. All we would do would be to say that among our scenarios, there is a possibility of decreasing the use of fossil fuels by a different taxation and I can imagine doing that but we would not go further than that.