marklynas.orgUK government considers carbon rationing 12 December 06
The UK Environment Secretary David Miliband made waves with a speech earlier this year mulling the potential benefits and pitfalls of carbon rationing – where every individual would be issued with tradeable carbon permits on an annual basis, with the number issued reducing year-on-year to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Miliband built on this speech with a much more detailed scoping study commissioned from external consultants, and published by Defra yesterday. I urge anyone interested in the potential feasibility of carbon rationing to examine it closely – many very important questions are raised (and answered). The study (in PDF) is here.
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We can start by rating all products & services
We can start by rating all products & services
for their carbon emissions. That can be done, even if the carbon allowances/trading scheme is not enacted. It could be included on price tags or product info labels, or something. But even before that, someone could complile a “buyer’s guide book to carbon emissions.” That would be a big job, and companies are going to squabble, but it may get them to think about reducing their “GHG emission” content.
Clear report
Clear report
At first glance a very clear report that has identified many relevant issues.
Perhaps a bit thin on the issue of the interrelations between consumer energy and transport emissions, various business emissions, life cycle emissions of imports, and exports, but possibly that was outside the scope.
Useful for changing the way business is done ..
Useful for changing the way business is done ..
To let you know, the the individual carbon rationing download link has moved to:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/individual/pca/pdf/pca-scopingstudy.pdf
Also, I do think this document legitimizes a discussion of how to adapt business practices. I included it in a recent company article where I wrote:
“Fourthly, and this is looking a little to the future, Internet surveys are broadly “carbon-neutral”. More of the Internet surveys that I am involved in are competitive to face-to-face surveys, which would require a fair amount of travel. As companies such as GSK sign up to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), it will be a point of differentiation for agencies to offer Internet surveys which claim zero/low emissions. More and more products can be developed virtually, and tested via Internet research, perhaps using video streaming technology. It is my guess that we will all become much more familiar with how much carbon we are spending, especially if the ETS facilitates individual carbon trading.”
http://www.brand-health.com/resources/article.php?id=19