News

Governments around the world have set net-zero carbon targets for 2050 or earlier, while national parliaments and local governments are declaring a ‘climate emergency’ and there is considerably increased public concern about climate change. Two major international social movements—the youth strikes for climate and Extinction Rebellion—are calling for increased action. The importance of personal actions as compared with wider system change is a matter of public discussion. It is clear that governments will need new policies to help meet their very challenging net-zero targets.

Personal carbon trading (PCT) is a policy idea that links global carbon reduction targets with personal action and could provide a framework for change. PCT is a general term used to describe a variety of downstream cap-and-trade policies, which locate the rights and responsibilities for carbon emissions from household energy use and/or personal travel or from all emissions across the economy at the individual level. Ten years ago, the knowledge on PCT was gathered in a journal Special Issue (Fawcett and Parag, 2010). The time is ripe for a new Special Issue to summarise the current state-of-the-art research; to reflect on what has been learned over the past ten years; to present new empirical, theoretical, and modelling research; and to consider what this policy idea has to offer in the new, even more urgent context.

Contributions welcome

Authors are invited to contribute to a Special Issue on PCT that includes the latest research on personal carbon trading and related concepts. Topics of the Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• New policy designs for PCT
• PCT in the context of energy system change towards electrification and low-carbon electricity
• How and whether PCT could be trialled before widespread introduction
• Experimental trials or case studies that look into aspects of personal carbon trading, such as reward schemes for low-carbon choices
• The technologies needed to implement a PCT scheme
• Where the responsibility for carbon emissions lies, and how that can translate into policy design and action
• The scope and boundaries of PCT policy
• Options for allocation of carbon allowances, the fairness of different allocation methods
• Modelling of PCT and its effects in terms of equity, distributional effects, effectiveness, or other characteristics
• The readiness of different nations to introduce radical climate policies
• Public perceptions and acceptance of PCT policies
• Economic feasibility and economic models for PCT, the economics of PCT

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