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Personal carbon trading: A critical survey

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  • Starkey, Richard

Abstract

In recent years, there has been considerable discussion within UK climate policy circles regarding the appropriateness of personal carbon trading as an instrument for greenhouse gas emission reduction. This paper is the first in a two-part survey of personal carbon trading (PCT), the term used here to describe proposed (sub-)national greenhouse gas emission trading schemes under which at least some emissions rights are allocated to and surrendered by individuals. After introducing the various proposed PCT schemes, the paper compares, in terms of equity, the two most-discussed PCT schemes with two alternative emission trading schemes and a carbon tax. The papers' two key findings are as follows. First, there are strong arguments that the equal per capita allocation proposed under some instruments is not completely fair. Second, the five instruments compared can be equivalent in terms of their equity. Along with equity, efficiency and effectiveness make up three key criteria for comparing environmental policy instruments. As PCT has no advantage in terms of equity, the paper concludes that any case for PCT will depend on it having advantages in terms of efficiency and/or effectiveness. Whether PCT has such advantages is explored in Part 2.

Suggested Citation

  • Starkey, Richard, 2012. "Personal carbon trading: A critical survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 7-18.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:73:y:2012:i:c:p:7-18
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.09.022
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    Cited by:

    1. Anderson, Blake & M'Gonigle, Michael, 2012. "Does ecological economics have a future?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 37-48.
    2. Zhao, Xin-gang & Jiang, Gui-wu & Nie, Dan & Chen, Hao, 2016. "How to improve the market efficiency of carbon trading: A perspective of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1229-1245.
    3. Fan, Jin & Li, Jun & Wu, Yanrui & Wang, Shanyong & Zhao, Dingtao, 2016. "The effects of allowance price on energy demand under a personal carbon trading scheme," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 242-249.
    4. Li, Yao & Fan, Jin & Zhao, Dingtao & Wu, Yanrui & Li, Jun, 2016. "Tiered gasoline pricing: A personal carbon trading perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 194-201.
    5. Spash, Clive L. & Theine, Hendrik, 2016. "Voluntary Individual Carbon Trading," SRE-Discussion Papers 2016/04, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
      • Clive L. Spash & Hendrik Theine, 2016. "Voluntary Individual Carbon Trading," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_04, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    6. Burgess, Martin, 2016. "Personal carbon allowances: A revised model to alleviate distributional issues," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 316-327.
    7. Buechs, Milena & Schnepf, Sylke V., 2013. "UK Households' Carbon Footprint: A Comparison of the Association between Household Characteristics and Emissions from Home Energy, Transport and Other Goods and Services," IZA Discussion Papers 7204, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Fan, Jin & Wang, Shanyong & Wu, Yanrui & Li, Jun & Zhao, Dingtao, 2015. "Buffer effect and price effect of a personal carbon trading scheme," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 601-610.
    9. Raux, Charles & Chevalier, Amandine & Bougna, Emmanuel & Hilton, Denis, 2021. "Mobility choices and climate change: Assessing the effects of social norms, emissions information and economic incentives," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    10. Fabio Bothner, 2021. "Personal Carbon Trading—Lost in the Policy Primeval Soup?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, April.
    11. Daoyan Guo & Hong Chen & Ruyin Long, 2019. "What Role Should Government Play in the Personal Carbon Trading Market: Motivator or Punisher?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-16, May.
    12. Zhao, Xin-gang & Wu, Lei & Li, Ang, 2017. "Research on the efficiency of carbon trading market in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-8.
    13. Tan, Xueping & Wang, Xinyu & Zaidi, Syed Haider Ali, 2019. "What drives public willingness to participate in the voluntary personal carbon-trading scheme? A case study of Guangzhou Pilot, China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Qian Wang & Qiao-Mei Liang & Bing Wang & Fang-Xun Zhong, 2016. "Impact of household expenditures on CO2 emissions in China: Income-determined or lifestyle-driven?," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 84(1), pages 353-379, November.
    15. Bianca Blum & Bernhard K. J. Neumärker, 2021. "Lessons from Globalization and the COVID-19 Pandemic for Economic, Environmental and Social Policy," World, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-26, June.
    16. Anna-Katharina Kothe & Alexander Kuptel & Roman Seidl, 2021. "Simulating Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) with an Agent-Based Model (ABM): Investigating Adaptive Reduction Rates and Path Dependence," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-15, November.
    17. Nie, Qingyun & Zhang, Lihui & Li, Songrui, 2022. "How can personal carbon trading be applied in electric vehicle subsidies? A Stackelberg game method in private vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    18. Pitkänen, Atte & von Wright, Tuuli & Kaseva, Janne & Kahiluoto, Helena, 2022. "Distributional fairness of personal carbon trading," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    19. Li, Lixu & Wang, Zhiqiang & Xie, Xiaoqing, 2022. "From government to market? A discrete choice analysis of policy instruments for electric vehicle adoption," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 143-159.
    20. Büchs, Milena & Schnepf, Sylke V., 2013. "Who emits most? Associations between socio-economic factors and UK households' home energy, transport, indirect and total CO2 emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 114-123.
    21. Wadud, Zia & Chintakayala, Phani Kumar, 2019. "Personal Carbon Trading: Trade-off and Complementarity Between In-home and Transport Related Emissions Reduction," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 397-408.
    22. Edwin Woerdman & Jan Willem Bolderdijk, 2017. "Emissions trading for households? A behavioral law and economics perspective," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 553-578, December.
    23. Joachain, Hélène & Klopfert, Frédéric, 2014. "Smarter than metering? Coupling smart meters and complementary currencies to reinforce the motivation of households for energy savings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 89-96.
    24. Oostdijk, Maartje & Santos, Maria J. & Agnarsson, Sveinn & Woods, Pamela J., 2019. "Structure and evolution of cod quota market networks in Iceland over times of financial volatility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 279-290.
    25. von Wright, Tuuli & Kaseva, Janne & Kahiluoto, Helena, 2022. "Needs must? Fair allocation of personal carbon allowances in mobility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).

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