Still banging on about personal carbon trading

The IPPR has released a report saying that if carbon trading as it
stands doesn’t work, the Government is going to need to think about
introducing personal carbon trading.

What they’re saying is, carbon trading doesn’t work, so it must be
time for personal carbon budgets. What I don’t understand is why this
is still an issue.

There are problems with the current carbon trading regime but they’re
down to two major problems: the emissions limits are too loose, and
its hard to regulate. How’s that going to get better if we introduce
independent personal carbon trading?

There is a conceptual and ideological appeal as it would make
individuals responsible for their own emissions. While many believe
that the only sensible option to fundamentally change emissions
patterns are taxation or rationing, politicians as a general rule tend
to prefer not to introduce taxes. Personal carbon trading has appeal
to both the right wing agenda (focused on the free market), and the
left wing agenda (focus on the equitable distribution of rights).
Despite the fact that lower income houses tend to spend a higher
proportion of income on power and heating, as a general rule the poor
emit lower levels of GHGs and would therefore be more likely to be
sellers of credits – providing an additional revenue stream.

Honestly, the sensible thing seems to be to provide a combination of
both. But then you’ve got the question, who is going to pay for the
programme, how’s it going to be regulated and, of course, does anyone
actually accurately know the carbon footprints of half the actions
they refer to?

Not only would all goods and services have to have their embedded
carbon calculated, but the full lifecycle including distribution and
disposal would have to be analysed. While the launch of the Carbon
Trust standard PAS 2050 may bring us one step closer to that goal,
we’re still some time away from having a detailed economy wide
understanding of where all GHGs are emitted.

Even if we achieve that goal, such a system would require a country
wide bureaucracy to manage each individual’s carbon account. While in
the UK that would fit neatly with government plans to track all our
personal information on ID cards, it sounds like yet another way to
let Big Brother into our lives.