Amy Lunt |
Dear CRAG member,
This post is to inform you about an opportunity to take part in a national study about CRAGs and their experiences of carbon rationing and accounting. This research will contribute to the current work underway evaluating Personal Carbon Trading/Allowances (PCT) as a policy measure.
Of particular interest to this study are how people have gone about attempting to account for and limit their carbon usage, and how people are adapting to live with carbon rations. CRAGs represent a natural ‘field trial’ on aspects of a PCT system and present a real opportunity to inform academic debate and understanding through their experiences.
The study is part of an ongoing collaborative Masters research project between Amy Lunt at the University of East London/Centre for Alternative Technology, and Stuart Capstick at the Department of Psychology in the University of Bath, UK. Both Amy and Stuart are CRAG members and we believe much can be learnt from other members about carbon management, reduction and related behaviours.
To gather the information for the research project we are conducting an initial online questionnaire. All registered CRAG members will be invited, by email and the website, to complete this in the next 2- 3 weeks. A number of follow-up interviews will then be conducted with interested members. Your contribution to this process will be greatly valued to us in terms of our research, and has the potential to contribute to evaluation of PCT as a policy measure.
If you have any questions regarding this or would like to speak to us about your experiences please contact us via email: carbonsurvey@gmail.com
Regards Amy Lunt and Stuart Capstick
CRAG participation in research (2) PCT reply by 7 March 08 pleas
Peckham Anna
Thanks Amy and Stuart for organising this really interesting project – it’ll be great to hear what your findings are.
At Peckham CRAG’s last meeting, another MSc student, Rocio Perez-Ochoa, joined us. She’s doing an MSc in Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, with a practical research project on public and professional-politician perceptions of Personal Carbon Trading. It seems she’s only recently learned about CRAGs. Rocio has been focusing on public perceptions of PCT and would be very happy if any members of this forum could send her via this forum, by end of 7 March 2008 please,
1 any of their opinions on the main barriers to PCT, and any solutions that could help remove these barriers
2 their comments on any of the main objections made by the 39 interviewed members of the public, as summarised below:
1)Hassle/Inconvenience
2)Complexity: Following the explanation of the scheme given by the interviewer, most participants understood the basic concept but raised concerns over the general complexity of how a PCT scheme would work in practice. Particular concern was held for older people or people with a low level of education. One particular participant suggested that the scheme was too complicated given the weight of the solution.
3)Governmental issues: A broad range of government related issues were raised. Some believed that the scheme was a government ploy to make them look good on the global stage whilst others resented the idea of government imposing on people’s lifestyle/civil liberty. Conversely there were several comments regarding a perceived lack of political will or support and some suggestions that the government should be solving climate change, not the public.
4)Equity: Many showed concerns that the scheme be implemented in a way that would be fair. It was felt that certain groups such as the poor, housebound and elderly would suffer plus those who lived in more remote (no public transport) or otherwise colder areas. It was also suggested by many that the scheme would be a license to pollute for the super rich and that they would be able to find ways of getting around it.
5)Impracticality: Many simply felt that the scheme was impractical as a real solution to emissions reduction, being overly bureaucratic, difïcult and expensive to set up and maintain, etc. Issues were raised over the idea that immigration and non-domicile persons would present problems for a scheme like this.
6) Other significant barriers raised were: the huge contributions to climate change from other sources such as China, US, industry; the cost and difficulty in changing lifestyle; the already rising energy and transport prices; fraud and identity theft; the belief that PCT would have no effect on climate change.
Apologies for the very short notice – as I say, it would appear she’s only just found out about CRAGs.
Many thanks!
Anna