This paper gives a short history of fuel taxation and the Climate Change Levy in the UK. The research described was based around the use of interviews and focus groups to inform the assessment of social responses to ETR policies and the development of improved designs for them. Interviews were conducted with selected policy makers and companies. Focus groups were conducted with quota samples of the general public. The research shows that the problem that ETR faces in terms of public acceptance is not so much outright hostility to environmental taxation as conceptual problems with the design. Similar conceptual problems were also found in the interviews with business people. These can be summarised as lack of trust about use of the revenues, difficulty in understanding the purpose of a tax shift and a desire for incentives for good behaviour as well as perceived 'penalties' for bad behaviour. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.