Climate group sees Forrest for the trees

The Citizens' Climate Lobby is eyeing up the South West to establish a branch in the Federal electorate of Forrest.

Representatives from the group - which advocates for a revenue-neutral "fee and dividend" scheme to reduce carbon dioxide output - were in the region last week and met with environment groups to garner support for a branch.

CCL's Rod Mitchell told the _Times _the lobby's aim was to move towards a post-carbon economy as quickly as possible and said the fee-and-dividend scheme was the simplest, most transparent and fair way of bringing down the carbon level in the atmosphere. "What we've done is allowed fossil fuels and the carbon economy to grow like crazy without thinking of the consequences," he said.

The group's fee and dividend plan would differ from a carbon tax in that the charge would be taken at the point of entry into the economy and distributed to households immediately; no money would go into government coffers.

The lobby was established in the United States about eight years ago and has since expanded to a number of countries.

British Columbia in Canada has implemented the fee and dividend scheme.