john ackers |
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It is a great pity that the Conservatives have stopped short of proposing Personal Carbon Allowances. The bland Quality of Life proposals are likely to be acceptable to voters of all political persuasions as they are unlikely to require any significant behaviour change. And no doubt Labour will propose similar, useful but inadequate policies. However if either party was to propose PCAs, the stakes would be raised and voters at the next next election would have to choose between lifestyle and making a concession towards the planet. Such a proposal would have the the tabloid editors salivating but that should not deter our political leaders.
I think the CRAG network needs to put out a press release along these lines or some other lines making the case for Personal Carbon Allowances. I am beginning to think that although many thoughtful people support PCAs, very few are actively involved in campaigning for them apart from Colin Challen and a few other individuals and the RSA of course.
The Lib Dems say in Zero Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead they would “examine the potential benefits of introducing a system of tradable personal carbon allowances”. That’s very disappointing. Even Gordon Brown could probably sign up for that.
Also, Hilary Benn (for overseas readers, Labour Environment Minister) spoke at the FoE conference on Friday evening and put great emphasis on individuals reducing their personal footprint but stopped short of mentioning Personal Carbon Allowances or any form of rationing; very disappointing after David Miliband’s comments when he had the same job.
It looks as if the 3 main political parties are planning to enter the election well inside their comfort zone.
I agree with your analysis
Jamie
I agree with your analysis, and have a few comments to add following our experience building http://beta.thecarbonaccount.com which was originally designed to demonstrate the feasibility of PCT.
In terms of the Lib Dems recently calling their policy ‘Zero Carbon Britain’, it’s an interesting name because of the CAT report (http://www.zerocarbonbritain.com/). I’m in touch with the authors of the CAT report and they told me they presented the report to the Lib Dems in its entirety and are now keen to keep pushing them to go the whole hog and adopt TEQs rather than a tax-based system. They produced a press release to clarify their position: http://www.zerocarbonbritain.com/content/view/43/35/
Although the Conservatives have clearly not gone far enough, I think it’s a bit harsh to call the proposals ‘bland’. If there’s any substance to the assertion that GDP will be replaced by HPI (Happy Planet Index), then it is a welcome inclusion that brings in some important thinking from the New Economics Foundation (see http://www.neweconomics.org).