Personal carbon trading

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Personal carbon trading refers to schemes in which emissions credits are allocated to individuals on a per capita basis, within national carbon budgets. Individuals would then have to surrender these credits when buying fuel or electricity. Individuals wanting or needing more energy would be able to partake in emissions trading to secure more credits, just as companies do now within the EU ETS.

It is sometimes confused with carbon offsetting due to the similar notion of paying for emissions allowances, but is a quite different concept designed to be mandatory and to guarantee that nations achieve their domestic carbon emissions targets (rather than attempting to do so via international trading or offsetting).

Contents

[edit] Proposals

There are no operating schemes currently in existence, although the United Kingdom Climate Change Bill will grant powers allowing the Government to introduce a scheme without further primary legislation. Current proposals include:

  • Personal Carbon Allowances (PCAs) - described in the book “How we can save the planet” by Mayer Hillman and Tina Fawcett. Work on PCAs is ongoing at the Environmental Change Institute[3], Oxford, UK. The title "PCAs" or "PCA scheme" is sometimes used generically to refer to any proposed form of personal carbon trading.
  • Tradable Personal Pollution Allowances - originally proposed in an article by Dr. Kirk Barrett in 1995[4] and applicable to any form of pollution, including carbon dioxide.

Individuals would most likely hold their emissions credits in electronic accounts, and would surrender them when they make carbon-related purchases, such as electricity, heating fuel and petroleum. PCAs could also require individuals to use credits for public transport. Tradable Energy Quotas would bring all other sectors of society (eg. Industry, Government) within the scope of a single scheme.

Individuals who exceed their allocation (i.e. those who want to use more emissions credits than they have been given) would be able to purchase additional credits from those who use less, so individuals that are under allocation would profit from their small carbon footprint.

Proponents of personal carbon trading claim that it is an equitable way of addressing climate change and peak oil, as it could guarantee that a national economy lives within its agreed carbon budget and ensure fair access to fuel and energy. They also believe it would increase ‘carbon literacy’ among the public, while encouraging more localised economies.[5]

Personal carbon trading has been criticised for its possible complexity and high implementation costs. As yet, there is minimal reliable data on these issues. There is also the fear that personal "rationing" and trading of allowances will be politically unacceptable, especially if those allowances are used to buy from industries who are already passing-on costs from their participation in carbon levy or trading schemes such as the EU ETS.

Research in this area[6][7] has shown that personal carbon trading would be a progressive policy instrument - redistributing money from the rich to the poor - as the rich use more energy than the poor, and so would need to buy allowances from them. This is in contrast to a direct carbon tax, under which all lower income people are worse off, prior to revenue redistribution.

[edit] Related emissions reduction proposals and initiatives

  • Sky Trust proposal - devised by Peter Barnes and described in his book Who Owns The Sky.[8]
  • Cap and Share proposal - developed by The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability[9] (FEASTA) in Ireland
  • Carbon Rationing Action Groups[10] - groups in the UK and US that voluntarily cap their greenhouse gas emissions
  • "Icecaps" - devised by George Monbiot in his book Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
  2. ^ RSA CarbonLimited Partners and Supporters
  3. ^ Environmental Change Institute (ECI) - Oxford University
  4. ^ Personal Pollution Allowance Proposal:
  5. ^ David Fleming (2007), Energy and the Common Purpose
  6. ^ Simon Dresner and Paul Ekins, Policy Studies Institute, The Distributional Impacts of Economic Instruments to Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transport
  7. ^ Joshua Thumim and Vicki White, Centre for Sustainable Energy (2008). Distributional Impacts of Personal Carbon Trading: A report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Defra, London
  8. ^ PPI: Making Climate Control Pay: The Sky Trust Proposal by Jan Mazurek
  9. ^ Feasta: The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability
  10. ^ Home | CRAG

[edit] External links

[edit] General

[edit] Tradable Energy Quotas (AKA Domestic Tradable Quotas)


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