Carbon credits: beyond industry

Much is being written about carbon credits being traded by industry. But what about individuals? An interesting idea was put forth by UK's Environment minister some time ago.

The Guardian reports: Every citizen would be issued with a carbon "credit card" - to be swiped every time they bought petrol, paid an energy utility bill or booked an airline ticket - under a nationwide carbon rationing scheme that could come into operation within five years, according to a feasibility study commissioned by the environment secretary, David Miliband.

Mr Miliband said the idea of individual carbon allowances had "a simplicity and beauty that would reward carbon thrift". He acknowledged the proposal faced technical difficulties, but said ministers needed to seek ways of overcoming them.

... Under the scheme, everybody would be given an annual allowance of the carbon they could expend on a range of products, probably food, energy and travel. If they wanted to use more carbon, they would be able to buy it from somebody else. And they could sell any surplus.

The New Scientist environment blog asked readers to respond to the idea and several of them pointed out that it would not solve the problem.

An anonymous commenter noted: This is a good idea on the surface, but presumes that somebody will be using less than their carbon limit, and will therefore have credits to sell. Most people in the first world at least, have huge carbon footprints, and so will all be over the neutral limit.

Even if the first world bother to buy the credits from the third world, what will the third world do with their new found wealth? Probably start buying the same stuff that makes the first-world's carbon footprint so large in the first place, cars and the like. Ultimately the problem needs to be resolved by smarter green technology rather than shuffled somewhere else.

OK. So we are back to square zero. Any ideas?