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Wychwood CRAG launch
Thread started on 8/1/2008 13:20

tom

tom

presentations

starting new crags

We’re finally launching a CRAG for the Wychwood area. This is a rural area in Oxfordshire, and includes Charlbury, Leafield, Hailey and Ascott-under-Wychwood, among others. Our launch session will take place on Thursday 17th January, at 8pm in a meeting room in The Bell, Charlbury. Do email me (my first name @ torchbox dot com) if you have any questions or you need help getting there; otherwise please just turn up!

Two administrative points: this group will replace the Cotswold group, which has failed to get off the ground partly because it represents too large a geographical area; it could merge with the Witney group, if that one hasn’t picked up enough members yet – I’ll leave that up to the Witney admins.

Look forward to meeting some of you on the 17th. I’ll report to this list after the session.

Tom

‹ NEF looking for low carbon homes to show Maryland CRAG Meeting held 11/18/07, goals set, let the games begin! ›
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Invitation to help with Wychwood CRAG launch

written on 14/1/2008 15:58

tom

tom

Two appeals for support and advice:

  • If a member of an established CRAG would like to participate in our launch event – this Thursday evening, January 17th, in Charlbury, Oxfordshire – she would be warmly welcomed by all of us and have her supper bought by me. Charlbury is a small town with a good train service: just over an hour from London in one direction, and just under an hour from Worcester in the other. Oxford CRAGers are closest.
  • As far as I know, no CRAGs have experimented with actual trading yet; i.e. where carbon debtors buy quotas from creditors if they exceed – or anticipate exceeding – the target set by the group. I’m keen to do this, but my co-organisers argue that trading will put off potential participants now, and lead to awkwardness when it comes to the time of reckoning… Have any of you debated this within your own groups, and, if so, what conclusions have you reached?

Tom

 
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Tom Congratulations and

written on 14/1/2008 16:29

Jessica

Jessica

Tom

Congratulations and good luck for the Wychwood CRAG launch! I’m afraid I can’t make it to Oxfordshire for a Thursday evening.

But I can tell you that Islington CRAG have been set up for in-CRAG trading since the start of our CRAG in Dec 2006. It’s always been my view that CRAGs can’t seriously model PCA unless we have actually model the financial incentive. I don’t think it has to be actual money changing hands, but we have chosen to do it this way.

Yes, there was much debate at the beginning as to whether we would do this, and a couple of people who were worried they would be high emitters dropped out, but 11 of us have stayed with it, and the high emitters have paid up willingly. Sorting out the detail has been difficult, and we have periodically reappraised and refined the rules, but this process of working things out is what the CRAGs experiment is all about!

The debate can be fun and helps you create relationships in the group, so I guess that has helped us feel cohesive and willing to invest time and money in the experiment.

We settle every 6 months (so have had two settlements so far). We ‘trade’ at a fixed price of 5p per kg – anyone with a carbon debt (ie, who has used more carbon credits than they had been allocated) must take their carbon account back up to zero by buying credits from carbon creditors (those who have credits left over). Once the accounts have been sorted out, the next 6 months’ ration gets allocated. This has worked fine for our first two settlements. Also, we recently decided to take the model one step further, by allowing creditors who still have credits left (after they’ve sold however many they were obliged to sell to debtors) to keep the remaining credits in their account. So it’s just like a real bank account – you can save carbon indefinitely, but you have to pay off your overdraft every 6 months.

The Islington CRAG homepage has comprehensive minutes and settlement notes going back 18 months, so dipping into them may help you. I shall shortly (hopefully this weekend) be posting a report of our second settlement and its outcome.

I’m happy to answer any questions you’re worried about.
Jessica R

 
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I’m another one of the

written on 14/1/2008 16:45

Jamie

Jamie

I’m another one of the co-organisers of the Wychwood CRAG with Tom. I think it’s a good idea to take the Islington CRAG as an example, so thanks for the explanations Jessica. I was wondering, what’s the most someone has had to pay to settle their debt? And the most someone has received? (naming no names!) Also, what would happen if we set the limit at 4500kg (for example) and everyone beat it? Who would pay the rewards? Would the limit just be set much lower for next time to ensure that some trading could take place?

We’ve spoken about the idea to have a ‘baselining’ period for the first quarter, where no-one pays and we all get a feel for how it might work. Then we could set a realistic target for the people who are still involved in Q2. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 
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Trading sounds good

written on 14/1/2008 18:27

jwebster

The Islington model sounds like it is working well. It’s been a while since I thought about economics but this should come down to money supply and liquidity. (The problem’s not hugely dissimilar to private company share schemes).

We could always link with Islington (meaning we could buy and sell credits across CRAGs), that would help with liquidity but we’d need to agree on the supply of credits.

—James

 
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paying your carbon debt

written on 26/1/2008 13:15

andy_ross

I was in the Leamington CRAG in 2006 and was over our agreed ration of 4.5 tonnes. We had a 4p per kilo penalty and I paid £112 into the groups carbon fund. The total fund was £222 and the savers chose not to keep it for themselves but donate it to Practical Action.

The Glasgow CRAG has just finished its 2007 carbon year. Our ration was 4.5 tonnes with a 7p per kilo price put on carbon debt. Payments into the carbon fund totalled £55. This is to be split between the savers proportionate to their share of the savings as per the short guide.

In 2008 our ration is set at 2 tonnes (estimated global average minus 10%) and carbon debt will be paid at 5p per kilo.

There are a lot of CRAGs about to finish their first year. It will be interesting to hear their stories.

 
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Report on the Wychwood CRAG launch

written on 19/1/2008 00:43

tom

tom

Here’s my report on last night’s launch of the Wychwood CRAG.

About 30 people turned up and squeezed into a room kindly donated by The Bell Inn, Charlbury. I gave a brief presentation to introduce carbon rationing and CRAGs and then we moved the chairs back and introduced ourselves. The group included at least two low-carbon professionals, a barrister, six web developers, several academics, parents, commuters, home-workers, businesspeople and an intern. Some knew their footprints, others feared what theirs might be; most hadn’t flown for a few years, some described their love miles apologetically.

Following the introductions, the discussions started with an attempt to agree on a fixed annual target, but this quickly became a wider debate about fixed versus proportional targets, whether or not a percentage reduction model could be compatible with trading, and whether or not we should attempt trading at all. Others were concerned that a system which included penalties would send negative signals to potentially sympathetic people in the wider communities, proposing an alternative incentive-only model (there wasn’t time for a full analysis of the economic sustainability of this approach…). It was a frank, friendly and strongly-worded debate, but it was clear that we weren’t going to reach a consensus on the financial details after two hours. Jamie Andrews and Tim Lunel proposed an experimental period during which we all monitor our carbon emissions, with the possible outcome of agreeing a fixed target which would be proportionate to the group’s average output. Everyone agreed, so this is what 25 of us are going to do, starting from February 1st, using the Carbon Account, with follow-up meetings scheduled in six and twelve weeks time. For those that continue, with whatever reward/penalty model is agreed, February 1st will the be start of our accounting year.

Thanks for all your encouragement and support. Here’s the presentation and a very short video to give you a flavour of the evening:

http://www.slideshare.net/tomdyson/wychwood-crag-launch/
http://www.vimeo.com/618004

Tom

 
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Great take-up

written on 27/1/2008 20:19

david

david

I think you’ve done well to keep 25, of the 30 who came to your public meeting, involved in the process. In Sevenoaks, only half that (around 12 of 30) came to subsequent meetings, although it still varies between ~6-16.

The difference may be your decision to start up with the monitoring only. That start could evolve into a two-tier system (that Rick M has been proposing in the BGC emails), with some only monitoring (reducers), and others adopting the full system (rationers?). I think you may find at least some of the reducers switch to rationing (but also possibly vice-versa). It could well be a really good way to keep more people involved whilst they familiarise themselves with the system: a key tip for new CRAGs?

 
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Two tier CRAGgers

written on 27/1/2008 21:52

john ackers

john ackers

David, I agree with what you are saying – two tiers is a possible approach (and happy to update tips to say this) but we don’t yet know whether this is the best approach. The other approach is to go the meeting and say, some of us are going to start a CRAG with a group target, who’s going to join us? If we human beings are given a soft option i.e. monitoring only in this case, we’ll take it. It would be interesting to hear from other people that went to that meeting.

 
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