Examining the ultimate translation of the carbon footprint: Personal Tradable Carbon Allowances Prof. dr. Marjan Peeters 6th Annual Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law

The role of citizens in climate change policies Traditionally, environmental law deals mainly with industries and commercial activities The climate change problem however forces us to consider the role of consumer behaviour Question: How should greenhouse gas emissions caused by citizens be regulated?

The idea of personal trading rests on the following fundamental concepts: Per capita emissions Carbon footprint

Per capita emissions Notion of equity and equality as expressed by Edith Brown Weiss: As beneficiaries of the planetary legacy, all members of the present generation are entitled to equitable access to and use of the legacy

-> Contraction and Convergence as a global model for reducing carbon emissions -Each person has an equal right to carbon emissions -Determination of the maximum acceptable amount of greenhouse gases, with a -Transition to the needed reduction -To be achieved in Allocation of allowances to states -Trade among states

“The international climate regime should be based on legitimate principles of equity, such as long-term convergence of emission levels per capita in the various countries.” Joint statement by M. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic, and Mrs Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, 9 June 2008

Carbon footprint Instrumental application of the per capita emission: It shows how many planets are needed for our carbon emissions

Critical points Domestic emissions, or domestic consumption? Single Focus, what about side effects Relationship with energy intensity and relationship with economic welfare Accounting problems

Personal carbon allowances Ultimate regulatory translation of the per capita idea and the carbon footprint

Personal tradable allowances Basic idea: 1)National cap, and budgets for sectors, inclusing households; 2) To allocate carbon credits to citizens, 3) Obligation to surrender credits when purchasing certain products and services, like energy and transport The idea of a carbon credit card

Growing support European Parliament Committee for the Environment, Public Health, and Safety, where it considered `to develop a citizen-based approach, by recommending a future option being a system of personal tradable quotas’

And...

Several design options -Coverage (only households, or business sectors too?) -Recipients (adults and children?) -Scope (which carbon emissions, which products and services?)

Differential treatment, for instance by giving extra allowances to Disabled persons Elderly people Parents with children

Poor people Personal trading will inevitably highlight existing inequalities of income and opportunity As with any other policy, these inequalities will need to be identified, assessed, and, where appropriate, compensated for.

Taxation is less preferable Cap and trade is forcing behavioural change much earlier compared to a tax, Moreover: With a tax, rich people have no cap, can simply pay the tax to the government With carbon credits, they have a cap and need to buy from other citizens

Technical issues The Committee believes that they can be solved.

“ Personal carbon trading might be the kind of radical measure needed to bring about behavioural change”

Further research questions How does personal carbon trading fit to existing and alternative policies, like the EU ETS? What about other models, like the revolutionary option proposed by the Irish NGO Feasta, meaning to allocate all available allowances to citizens?