Any attempts to cut fuel duty would be opposed as it is what keeps the net-zero programme afloat, the Environment Minister has said.
Senator Mary Le Hegarat told scrutineers on Monday: “I’ll publicly say that when people ask for a reduction in fuel, I say no, because that to me is the income that I’m getting in order that we can continue with the net-zero programme.”
She admitted that the island would not achieve “what we thought we were going to achieve by 2030”, repeating an acknowledgement from her department that important targets for 2022, 2023 and 2024 had not been met.
Earlier this year, the island’s independent Climate Council said that 2030 targets were “unachievable”.
This week, Deputy Alex Curtis, a member of the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel, highlighted that the Climate Emergency Fund’s income “was expected to decline”. As a result, he said, there were “concerns about long-term sustainability of funding”.
Senator Le Hegarat said funding for the Climate Emergency Fund was based on fuel duty, and that she hoped this would stay the same at around £4 million a year.
The fund currently gets 9p per litre of petrol, as well as a proportion of the vehicle emissions duty charged on car purchases.
But, she said, “at some stage, there’s going to have to be an acknowledgement… there’s going to have to be decisions about how you would replace [fuel duty] with”.
If her income from fuel duty were to collapse during her term, she said, there would have to be “a discussion” about funding.
Reducing fuel duty was a popular election theme – with a number of candidates speaking in favour of such a move while other campaigners, including Caritas Jersey CEO Patrick Lynch, also pushed for it.
Within days of the election, Deputy Lucy Stephenson lodged a proposition to cut fuel duty by 10p per litre – but this was withdrawn after a set of negotiations between Deputy Stephenson and government.
Senator Le Hegarat told Scrutiny: “I said absolutely no way.
“I wouldn’t support something that was going to cut the budget that I was getting in relation to this, and that was my discussion with the Treasury Minister.”
