Personal Carbon Trading – Stated Preference to Investigate Behavioural Response

Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) schemes which allocate responsibility for carbon emissions to individuals have been highlighted as a potentially powerful instrument with which to bring about reductions in carbon emissions in domestic energy consumption and personal transport.

There is disagreement regarding whether a traditional carbon tax or the more innovative PCT would be the most effective and acceptable method by which to tackle carbon dioxide emissions from personal activities.

Research to date has largely focused on technical feasibility, acceptability, efficiency and effectiveness from a theoretical perspective, with very few studies actually applying social survey methods to investigate behavioural responses to and the acceptability of such schemes.

This is addressed within this report, which outlines the findings of a study commissioned by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). The report makes a number of tentative policy recommendations together with ideas for future research directions.