Should everyone have their own personal carbon quota?
By Paul Homewood
The fact that this insane idea is even being considered is something that should horrify everyone who cares about individual liberty:
Your home, sometime in the next decade.
You click the heating on and receive an app notification telling you how much of your carbon allowance you’ve used today. Outside in the drive, your car’s fuel is linked to the same account. In the fridge, the New Zealand lamb you’ve bought has cost not just pounds and pence but a chunk of this monthly emissions budget too.
Welcome to the world of personal carbon allowances – a concept that is increasingly gaining traction among experts as a possible response to the climate crisis.
Each month, it would see every person or household in the country given a limited emissions quota to spend on heating, energy, travel, food and possibly consumer goods. Those who wish to expend more could buy top-ups. Those who require less would be able to sell their left-overs back to the ‘grid’.
Such a scheme, advocates reckon, would get more of us making the link between our own behaviour and global warming. Because consumers would seek greener energy, fuel and goods to stretch their allowance further, it could also help fundamentally restructure the economy in favour of low- or no-emission businesses.
“Individuals accounts for about 45 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions,” says Dr Tina Fawcett, acting leader of Oxford University’s energy programme and a researcher who has spent almost 20 years studying this concept. “Personal budgets could be a relatively simple, straightforward tool for reducing that.”
A few years ago, proponents of this would have been dismissed as cranks. But in our upside down world, the cranks are increasingly in control.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
What is not being said is that you will be able to increase your quota by buying carbon offsets or whatever name they call it then. You can see where this is going. The rich will still be able to carry on their lives of multiple houses, private jets and super yachts while we will have our lives greatly diminished. You can just see it coming.
100% right. The banker & elite led agenda right from day one (day one being the first quarter of the 20th century)!
Right from the start it was admitted by the UN IPCC that the whole Global Warming scam was about taking money from the western economies to bring about a one world socialist government .
There still has been no evidence that CO2 has any measureable effect on the climate , and even if there was , the UKs total amount of CO2 emissions make up just 0.000012% of the atmosphere , [ or 1 part in 10 million parts ].
But they are still putting out these ridiculous lies to try to get more money out the country .
Yes, they are the fools,/liars who dupe the gullible, who are not showing common sense. Even the Royal Society has dispensed with its motto.
Sounds like the relationship between many politicians and many voters.
That’s exactly what I was going to say. But perhaps we’ll be able to sell carbon points for cash to Joanna Lumley, so still be able to exist.
If the only way of buying more carbon credits is to buy them from people who have some to spare this would be a form of wealth redistribution. I’m on a low income, live in a small bedsit and can’t afford a car, so wouldn’t use up all of my allowance, and under a personal trading scheme could make a fair amount of money selling my unused credits.
I guess it all depends on your political persuasion and how strongly in favour of wealth distribution you are, and whether you think it’s worth sacrificing personal freedom to achieve it.
I’d bet you’d find it difficult to get good value for your surplus allowances. They would find some excuse to devalue the offer, and then milk a big trading and brokerage margin on selling them on. You would be left powerless to fight against it. Must use the official app…
It’s not remotely wealth distribution. You have wealth in one form and sell it to turn that wealth into another form.
Yes. I’m drooling over the enormous black market this would create. The trade in off-grid energy and commodities would be greater than the taxed and regulated bit. I could make millions if they bring in this black market. Of course i’ll have to buy protection so our domestic mafia and criminal gangs will blossom. Just then need to blackmail a handful of politicians -easy money! Welcome to the future – buy guns and ammo quick!
Think Greece and tax returns…..
You assume we will each get the same quota. And that the quotas will be equally enforced. We know that never happens.
This idea has been around a long time. It was wrong when first mentioned and it continues to be wrong now. It is a pity that it is almost impossible to explain to those who think this way why they are wrong. Please don’t let that put you off trying.
It’s a great way of creating thousands of well paid green jobs for all the inspectors and enforcers, and another Peasants’ Revolt.
Well paid how if we all lose our jobs and so stop paying tax?
There is no Climate Crisis.
Lacking definition or even description, it is a mere empty advertising/political slogan.
”Individuals accounts for about 45 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions,” says Dr Tina Fawcett.
Are we guilty of breathing and living? What a fatuous statement. As others here have observed only the wealthy and privileged will buy their way out of this one.
Just as well the ‘climate crisis’ is coming to a shuddering halt as we face a new Maunder Minimum.
Utterly tragic that the very thing sceptics don’t want, is that which will prove our point that CO2 is meaningless relative to the planets temperature, a cooling planet.
The “climate crisis” may be coming to a halt, however this doesn’t mean that the belief in one, or the pretence of one to serve political ends will come to a halt anytime soon.
There is already more than enough evidence to debunk the claim that we’re facing a crisis, and yet the global elites/MSM ignore it in order to push their agendas. Therefore I’m not convinced that another 10 years of global cooling will persuade them to change their minds.
It won’t change their minds, but it will change the minds of the currently sleeping public. When temperatures fall and energy costs rise people will eventually rumble, albeit unwittingly, what’s going on.
I’m approximately 18% carbon. That’s 13kg in a 70kg adult.
That’s my own personal quota.
What next ?
H2O allowance ?
Or a methane tax !
Bozo, the joking pig.
Carbon they’d like to capture & put in a hole in the ground I’m often left thinking these days.
if China, India , Pakistan, America et al sign up to this idiotic idea which I understand account for half the worlds population, I and the majority of sane and sensible people in the rest of the world would rather be in prison. who are these moronic individuals!
Well Alok Sharma certainly should have.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/06/cop26-president-alok-sharma-flew-to-30-countries-in-7-months
Air miles Sharma, the professional hypocrite.
“Is something that should horrify everyone who cares about individual liberty”
The way most people have allowed their liberty to be trashed on the grounds of “Fighting Covid” suggests to me that they won’t complain when this plan comes to fruition…
Unfortunately Vladimir is about to teach us a lesson that we won’t forget.
The UK government demolished all the power stations and there is no carbon budget to share out.
“Climate Crisis”?? You’re way off, Paul. According to the leader of the Scottish Greens – now in government in Scotland (!!!!!!!) – it’s a ‘Climate Catastrophe’.
As for Carbon Allowances – maybe the NZCs would like us to have our allowances tattooed as a barcode somewhere about our bodies. (And, for those who think it’s in bad taste, I’m a great believer in history repeating itself – mainly because there are those who think THEY can make it.)
Slightly off topic but further evidence of corruption and profiteering
https://www.farminguk.com/news/concern-as-welsh-farms-bought-up-for-carbon-offset-projects_59085.html
So how would they know how much wood I have burnt, or how much meat, eggs and milk I have got from my neighbouring farmer? A thriving black market would come into existence. Who buys New Zealand lamb anyway? I make sure the meat I buy is produced locally.
Air quality monitoring will catch you out with your wood burning. There won’t be much black market food, because it will all need importing due to the re-wilding of the countryside.
There won’t be any cash either, so unauthorised purchases will be detected.
The vast majority of people who live in cities perhaps? And who like lamb year round?
Everyone should be given the same carbon allowance as Al Gore.
That would be totally fair. 🙂
🤣👍🤜🤛
Won’t run on the Peruvian altiplano or Sikkim or Sierra Leone. In terms of controlling temperature in 2100, futile.
I recently sent Paul my NatWest statement which showed their estimate of my monthly carbon footprint. (11/11/21)
I hadn’t asked for this report.
They identified energy bills, diesel purchase, food receipts, weekly grocery shop, insurance, etc.
It was a guesstimate because Natwest couldn’t identify the specific items I had bought from the supermarket, just the total value.
But the supermarket knows exactly what I bought so it’s only a matter of time before this figure can be refined exactly.
Big Brother is here.
Following the collapse of Avro Energy I was transferred to Octopus. I logged into my new account to have a pink octopus tell me that as my laptop was over 80% charged I should unplug it to save stress on the grid. I will be leaving them at the first possible opportunity.
Why they feel they should be investigating the charge level of my equipment (it actually was at 80% charge and plugged in) is out-bloody-rageous.
You must have allowed them to fit a smart meter in your home, Ray. Is that correct? How else could they discern the use of individual appliances?
I refuse to allow them entry to fit one in my house. If it became mandatory by an act of parliament – I can’t see that working because I think there are enough of us ‘refuseniks’ to clog up court procedures for ever more. If a meter of some sort were fitted outside one’s boundaries, that wouldn’t be capable of knowing which appliance was in use.
I have a smart meter ( new build ) but I have to submit monthly readings to Octopus. I was under the impression they don’t have the technical capabilities yet. Oh the irony.
I get regular reminders that: “You are eligible for a smart meter. Please phone this number to book an appointment”. You can imagine what that letter gets used for.
I don’t think it’s the smart meter. . They can only know your laptop’s charge by querying it’s operating system via cookies. That is rather sinister.
I haven’t seen that on my Octopus dashboard, perhaps because I use Linux.
(I also have a privacy cover over my laptop camera. Yes, I’m paranoid. Am I paranoid enough?Search eBay for “Webcam Cover Thin 1/2/3 Pack Camera Privacy Security Sticker Slider Laptop”)
You will own nothing in the brave new world of the great reset and you will be happy…….or else!
“So, buddy, why are you in prison?”
“I exceeded my carbon budget.”
What a chilling page, Paul! As you rightly say, it’s horrifying.
But somehow I think good ol’ Mother Nature will have the last word. Ancient history has the proof.
I do love the “growing calls”. Extremists shouting for ever more extreme measures. There’s clearly no general “call” for it and if there is then people can just self-ration.
Law of unintended consequences will kick in.
General public will either stick two fingers up and say eff off or black market will develop and everyone will be “in the know”.
For those of us in rural areas our wood burners will still chug along and the number of pigeons and pheasants consumed will go up.
Game pie. Yum!
They will have to pry my Alfa from my cold, dead hands and I will take a goodly honour guard with me.
The big problem is that somebody has paid this dolly to spend nearly 20 years researching this drivel. I have the usual sinking feeling that it is us taxpayers once again.
Think of this another way – if those making the decisions and/or supporting them, actually had to work out their own CO2 footprint they might realise how hard a task they want doing is. At the moment it’s an airy fairy idea they can believe they already do. Buying offsets wouldn’t be that easy if everyone had a limit. The concept of CO2 labelling of goods would have to have some sort of cedibility.
How does a carbon quota, offset or tax on carbon take any CO2 out of the atmosphere? Moving the “pea” around and leaving it under a different shell will lower the Earth’s temperature???
It doesn’t but it would show the cheer leaders for CAGW how far they are from walking the walk. Thus, hopefully, being more realistic in their plans for the rest of us.
A few years ago, proponents of this would have been dismissed as cranks.
Not quite. TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas) were proposed in 1996.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradable_Energy_Quotas#Early_history
That led to the Domestic Tradable Quotas (Carbon Emissions) Bill in 2004 – see the link.
If they want my carbon footprint i would get rid of my internet at home today, and use only public internet in the local library. i also do not have a mobile phone, so no one can call or track me to any location
So you have no fixed home, utility bills, credit cards, drivers license, car etc? If CO2 footprints were calculated there are ways to track all but those who live on the streets and chances are they’d be well under the limit.
Who is surprised? This is where it was always headed because the Climate Hysteria Program was about access and power, nothing at all to do with the klymutt, that was just a trojan horse. It was and is always about a Western Marxist takeover and of all the power hungry tyrannical regimes of the past, the marxists top the bill for ultimate control through power.
I live in Norway where there is no political right ( they were all shot at the end of the war). It is all just different shades of left and that is how they want it to stay. There is one particular party among this red wall who if they got power would tax everyone 100%. If you needed anything then you would have to attend their office ( with an appointment of course and only if you were approved to be able to have an appointment during their limited opening hours) to appeal to their benevolence and to put your case for being “given” money for example to go to the supermarket for food. I kid you not. This malevolence has been given oxygen for 70 years and they now feel it is time to come out of the shadows.