Date published: 2007/05/17
The BBC says:
Imagine a time when petrol supplies are strictly rationed to help combat global warming.
In such a world, a country's annual quota could mean prices sky-rocketing towards the end of the year as supplies dwindle, before crashing back down again in January.
It would certainly reduce Christmas trips to visit relatives, while roads would likely be gridlocked at the start of each year.
Such a system might seem unworkable - or at least unpalatable - but it is being seriously proposed by Dublin-based think tank, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (Feasta).
And to help get the public on board, under their plans every adult citizen would be able to make some money from the scheme - at least before they are stung by soaring prices at the pumps.
Under Feasta's proposals, the European Union or member states would determine the maximum allowed levels of annual C02 emissions from the road transport sector.
They would then divide this figure by the number of adult citizens to come up with a theoretical personal allowance.
Each and every adult would then be given an annual paper certificate at the start of the year, allowing them to produce a certain amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), for example three tonnes per person, from their cars or other motor vehicles.
It sounds like a reasonable enough idea. But why just the road transport sector? Is it ok that London train commuters do not even come close to paying for their carbon emissions? (They get a whacking great public subsidy, so do not even come close to paying for the actual cost of their journeys, never mind the environmental cost.) And when they say the road transport sector, they probably mean the hydrocarbon-based road transport sector. So presumably electric cars will also be let off scot free. But the electricity had to be generated somehow, and currently most of that electricity is generated by fossil fuels. All in all, the idea is illogical because it does not go far enough. If carbon emissions are the problem, then all carbon emissions are part of the problem, not just carbon emissions that come from one sector the academic middle class happens not to like.
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