UK--PLAN FOR ‘CREDIT CARDS’ TO RATION INDIVIDUALS’ CARBON USE

[donsu]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/mediawatch/74


1//The Independent, UK--PLAN FOR ‘CREDIT CARDS’ TO RATION INDIVIDUALS’ CARBON USE (A limit could be imposed on the carbon each person pumps into the atmosphere under proposals being considered by the Government to combat global warming. A credit card-style trading system would ensure that people pay for air travel, electricity, gas and petrol with carbon rations as well as cash, under the plans to be floated today by David Miliband, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a speech to the Audit Commission. … Under the proposals, all citizens would be given a personal carbon allowance, based on national targets for cutting CO2 emissions. People who take measures to cut the pollution they produce could sell their surplus. Those who continue to produce pollution above their personal cap would have to buy credits on the open market.)
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interesting

[Greeby]

1. You know this all came about because President Gore came to town

After all, Bambi Ballcrusher can't afford to be upstaged by the real President :eyes:

[serryjw]

2. This is for UK?

Sounds like a plan USA should consider.

[leveymg]

3. So what happens when you reach the limit? No more food, travel or heat?

Sounds like a twist on the script for THX-1138. When you use up your life unit credits, the police give up trying to catch you.

[Nikki Stone 1]

4. The rich would have ways of getting extra "credits"; the poor would be

screwed

[fordnut]

5. Good plan

But a person shouldn`t be able to sell what they don`t use because that create a black market and another way for the rich to get richer.

[Nikki Stone 1]

6. You can't prevent a black market, and you can't prevent the rich from

getting perks.

[Xenotime]

7. This actually sounds like a good plan.

You could state your case for more carbon allowance. If there was a reward system for not using your full carbon allowance, I would support the plan 100%. The more carbon allowance you save, the bigger and better the rewards.

[electron_blue]

8. Do they really mean carbon, or carbon dioxide? I'm confused

[MoseyWalker]

9. why not

do this for corporate pollutors and those who feel the need to drive Hummers around the suburbs all day? Do we really need to legislate carbon use for everyone? How could it possibly be fair? I want as much use available as Cheney gets. Why shouldn't I be able to? Does anyone think I would actually get this? I just don't see a fairness factor, and it sounds creepy as hell at first glance, which tells me something. What a great way to track people's movements. Everytime you want to go somewhere by bus, train, plane, taxi, you name it, whoever tracks the use knows your habits. I realize we are all being hypnotized into thinking that surveillance isn't all that bad, I'm not there yet. I'm still pissed about cameras taking pictures of everything that happens everywhere.

(that didn't come out too loony, did it?)

[Strelnikov_]

10. This Would Also Address The Injustice Of 'Rationing By Price' For Energy

as availabilty contracts in the coming years.

A practical solution to effect bottom up transformation.

Miliband Unveils Carbon Swipe-Card Plan
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,1824238,00.html

Mr Miliband denied suggestions that the scheme would penalise the poor, by, for example, forcing the elderly to turn off their central heating in winter to save carbon points. "The technical work that has been done so far suggests that poorer people would actually do well out of it," the minister told Channel 4 News at Noon. "It is not the poor who are the biggest emitters of carbon. It is not the poor who have the biggest cars or the biggest holidays or the most aeroplane flights or the most energy inefficient usage."

Under the scheme, all UK citizens from the Queen down would be allocated an identical annual carbon allowance, stored as points on an electronic card similar to Air Miles or supermarket loyalty cards. Points would be deducted at point of sale for every purchase of non-renewable energy. People who did not use their full allocation, such as families who do not own a car, would be able to sell their surplus carbon points into a central bank.

High energy users could then buy them - motorists who had used their allocation would still be able to buy petrol, with the carbon points drawn from the bank and the cost added to their fuel bills. To reduce total UK emissions, the overall number of points would shrink each year. "As a planet we are consuming three times the amount of resources that we have got," the environment secretary told Channel 4 News. "If you think about us as individuals - we are emitting about four tonnes of carbon every year and that's probably three times as much as we can afford; as a household on average 10 tonnes."