It's only three years to go to the end of the first period of the Kyoto Protocol, and countries are fishing around for ways to achieve what they have so far failed to do: reduce carbon emissions. The UK might make it personal:

Proposals for personal carbon trading aim to cut emissions by giving every person in the country a quota of free ‘carbon credits’ which would be needed to buy electricity and gas for our homes, petrol and diesel for our cars and aeroplane tickets for our holidays. Unlike food rations during the war, carbon credits would be tradable, so people with small carbon footprints could sell their spare credits while people with gas guzzlers and houses full of energy-hungry gadgets would need to buy extra credits to cover their extra emissions. Over time the quotas would shrink, in line with the need to hit emissions reduction targets.

A new report from the ippr suggests that while this would be a costly option, government may need to prepare for it if they are to reach legally binding targets. What will this mean? Certainly by putting responsibility for emissions in the hands of the consumer rather than the supplier, there will be widespread awareness of the carbon implications of individual decisions. Managing the system could be an administrative nightmare, and possibly even result in a thriving black market in carbon credits. But I am convinced that widespread awareness, whether achieved through this system or some other, is essential to really influence the ways in which we affect the environment.


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