The Green Alliance and the Royal Society of the Arts' RSA Carbon Limited was a pioneering project on personal carbon trading. The project began in January 2006 and came to an end in November 2008, resulting in a final report, "Persuasive Climate".
Almost half of the UK's emissions of greenhouse gases can be attributed to our individual actions. A framework aimed at systematically reducing them is therefore an attractive prospect: using emissions trading to achieve this is appealing because it has the potential to be more progressive than a carbon tax. Indeed, the provision of incentives (financial or otherwise) is vital to encourage environmentally friendly behaviour, whilst avoiding many of the sticky issues of compulsion.
The report considers the following questions:
- Can a PCT fit with the current and proposed UK policy framework?
- What is the scale of the challenge, in terms of the emissions reductions to be delivered by individuals?
- Do we have the policy framework to deliver this challenge?
- If not, what is the gap in the policy framework that needs to be filled?
- Is a personal carbon trading scheme the appropriate instrument to fill this gap?
Andy Kerr's book may be bought here.
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