Why are taxpayers subsidising the oil and gas companies that jeopardise our future? | Clive Lewis

Instead of hoping market forces solve the climate crisis, the government needs to stop giving tax breaks to polluters

Last October, the world's most renowned climate scientists warned governments that humanity has just 12 years to prevent climate catastrophe. The UK government faces three choices to deal with carbon-heavy fossil fuels: force people to stop using them immediately; facilitate a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy; or hope business-as-usual market forces solve our problem for us. Strip away the rhetoric, and the Tory government is still relying on the latter option.

A few weeks ago, lost in the never-ending fog of Brexit, the cross-party public accounts committee released a damning report on the public cost of decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure. Their report vindicates every argument Labour has made against the government's massive tax breaks for oil and gas companies, under its Transferable Tax History (TTH) policy.