A study involving a Plymouth University academic suggests
politicians should implement a quantity-based energy quota system to meet
emissions targets.
(July 16, 2015) To
achieve public support for a transformation to a low carbon society,
politicians would be advised to implement a quantity-based energy quota system,
with a fixed and decreasing cap on total use, rather than relying on carbon
pricing and taxation mechanisms, according to a new study.
In a wide-ranging paper published in the Carbon Management
journal, researchers from the Fleming Policy Centre – including Dr Victoria
Hurth from Plymouth University – set out the potential of a policy framework
termed Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) for meeting the ambitious carbon emissions
reductions targets required to address the climate crisis.
They argue that TEQs offer the most effective, equitable and
expeditious way to bridge the gulf between climate science and political
reality.
Since publication, the paper – reconciling scientific
reality with realpolitik: moving beyond carbon pricing to TEQs: an integrated,
economy-wide emissions cap – has become the journal’s second most read article
ever.
Uniquely among climate policy solutions, TEQs addresses the
bind that arises because 'realists about climatology rightly argue that
physical reality bats last and does not negotiate', while 'realists within
politics argue with equal validity that any approach that tries to radically
transform society against society’s wishes will be resented and, soon enough,
rejected'.
The TEQs framework, explain the authors, anticipates and
overcomes some of the reasons for public resistance to transformative climate
policies.
For example, one of the key reasons for the unpopularity of
policies such as carbon taxes is that they fail to positively engage all people
and organisations.