The Green Fiscal Commission was publicly launched on 14 November 2007 with the press release of the results of an opinion poll on public attitudes to environmental taxation conducted by the British Market Research Bureau. This survey showed 72 per cent of the public support the establishment of such a body with an even higher proportion, 77 per cent, indicating support for the kind of tax shift that would be a central element of green fiscal reform.

The Commission is an independent body and is not affiliated to any political party. The Commission membership includes experts from business, leading academics, senior MPs from all three main UK political parties, three members of the House of Lords, and representatives from consumer and environmental organisations. It is chaired by Robert Napier, Chairman of the Met Office and former Chief Executive of WWF. Its Director is Professor Paul Ekins, Professor of Energy and Environment Policy at King’s College London and formerly Head of the Environment Group at the Policy Studies Institute.

Commission work programme
The three work streams of the Green Fiscal Commission are:

1. The generation of information/evidence on the operation and implementation of environmental taxes,
2. The generation of information/evidence on public and stakeholder attitudes to environmental taxes,
3. Targeted and appropriate communication of the Commission’s findings to a broad range of stakeholders and the public.

The outputs from this work will be discussed and shaped at regular meetings of the Commission between now and summer 2009.

Secretariat
The Secretariat of the Green Fiscal Commission is provided by the Policy Studies Institute one of the UK’s leading independent research institutes.  The Secretariat consists of:

• Prof Paul Ekins, King’s College London (formerly PSI)
• Ben Shaw, Head of Environment Group
• Dr Simon Dresner, Senior Research Fellow
• Sarah Bell, Research Officer

Funders
We would like to acknowledge and thank the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation as the major funder of Green Fiscal Commission and also the Ashden Trust who have made a contribution allowing the Commission to engage in additional work beyond that originally proposed.