Personal Carbon Credits

**qtman** · 24th July 2006, 10:21 AM

Saw this on on TIPT from FIE, which seems like a very good idea:

The UK government is to look into the idea of issuing citizens with personal carbon allowances to boost efforts to curb greenhouse gases emissions, environment minister David Miliband said on Wednesday. Such a radical scheme would be a world first.

Individuals would be given "ration cards", from which points would be deducted for purchases of electricity, gas, fuel and air tickets, Mr Miliband said. Low users could sell surplus points to a central bank. The government would set an overall cap on carbon emissions to ensure they fall over time.

Personal allowances would be a fairer way than higher taxes to address consumer-related carbon emissions - which account for 44% of the national total - the minister added. The government has ordered a feasibility study, to report back in the first half of 2007.

**farnaby** · 24th July 2006, 11:53 AM

Initial thoughts are sceptical - firstly because it reeks of UK Labour 'incentivising' and 'enhancing choice', secondly because it will add another level of state-imposed complexity to people's lives.

But on the other hand, it could,make reducing energy consumption more of a win-win (saving environment and saving money) than a carbon tax (which would just be treated as an imposed price increase).

**david** · 24th July 2006, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by qtman

Saw this on on TIPT from FIE, which seems like a very good idea:

The UK government is to look into the idea of issuing citizens with personal carbon allowances to boost efforts to curb greenhouse gases emissions, environment minister David Miliband said on Wednesday. Such a radical scheme would be a world first.

Individuals would be given "ration cards", from which points would be deducted for purchases of electricity, gas, fuel and air tickets, Mr Miliband said. Low users could sell surplus points to a central bank. The government would set an overall cap on carbon emissions to ensure they fall over time.

Personal allowances would be a fairer way than higher taxes to address consumer-related carbon emissions - which account for 44% of the national total - the minister added. The government has ordered a feasibility study, to report back in the first half of 2007.

It's ten years since David Fleming published his proposal for TEQs (tradable energy quotas) so the lag time is not bad considering past efforts to deal with green issues. A fair assessment was undertaken by the Tyndall Centre in 2005. There is clearly a long way to go in getting Ireland interested in such a scheme but I welcome any consideration of what ought to be a truly equitable method of allocating pollution 'rights'.

The ideal situation is for all adults to have equal pollution 'rights' and to sell what they don't need. The argument that it further complicates lives is weak in the face of doing little or a hotch-potch of measures regarding energy consumption and pollution. The scheme itself need not be complex.

Furthermore, a good TEQ system would allow for individuals to opt out, purchasing energy quota as required.

**david** · 28th July 2006, 01:53 PM

I found this which says what I was trying to say but more succinctly:

Every resident of Europe would receive an equal number of fossil fuel emissions permits, which he or she could sell to brokers at whatever was the going rate on the day.

Companies that bring fossil fuel into the economy would need to acquire enough of these permits from the brokers to cover the emissions from the fossil fuel they sell, and surrender them to the authority.

The number of permits issued each year would reduce in order to keep within the capacity of the atmosphere to handle carbon emissions, thus the value of each permit would rise rather than the price of fossil fuel.

And, as I said, users could opt out of the scheme by selling all their units upon receipt.

**antagoniser** · 28th July 2006, 02:17 PM

In terms of travel, there would be constitutional issues regarding goverment restriction of free travel using a quota system.

**david** · 28th July 2006, 02:26 PM