Despite all the fanfare on the UK government's plans for renewables, they've been keeping rather quieter about negotiations in Brussels where they've been busy trying to water down an EU directive on renewable energy. The Guardian carried the story on its front page today, and Friends of the Earth is currently asking people to email John Hutton. One of the main ways the government wants to avoid meeting the EU target of 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 is to buy credits from elsewhere. If other European countries can meet the target without fiddling the figures, why can't we?
Elsewhere in the same paper, a piece by George Monbiot about a loophole in the Climate Change Bill allowing credits to be bought from abroad to meet emissions reductions targets. I'm starting to spot a theme here. Incidentally, the final stages of the Climate Change Bill in the House of Commons will now not be until October or November - plenty of time for lobbying your MP
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2 comments:
I’d like to take up the gentle hint to write to my MP. However, before I do so without understanding properly what I'm trying to say, I'd be grateful if somebody could explain to me the logic behind emissions trading.
I run a Seat Ibiza and my neighbour has a Cadillac SRX. So he pays me £1000 to offset his 396gCO2/km against my 99g/km. I don't need encouragement to continue driving what suits me and he isn't deterred by the £1000 which he can afford. The deal affects neither my net emissions nor his.
I have looked at the Defra explanation but I still can't see why it's any different on a global scale.
The same principle applies to green taxation. It does work as long as it is at a level that makes the extra cost a significant factor in enough people's decisions, even if not the super-rich. Of course it is more immediately effective to pass legislation saying that cars (or anything else) must be energy efficient, but green taxation may be more politically acceptable. Unfortunately the money raised is rarely ringfenced for green spending.
One of the extra factors in carbon trading is that there is a cap on total emissions which would get reduced over time. There are problems, though, when the scheme is too generous and more companies make a profit from being awarded free credits than are made to reduce emissions.
Here is a BBC news page about the European emissions trading scheme:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4114921.stm
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