Five thousand Britons will trial a personal carbon trading scheme on energy use for households and individuals starting in November. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) is running the pilot scheme among volunteer members.

They will each be assigned a personal carbon dioxide cap and associated credits based on personal emissions data now being compiled in a database. Against this will be matched actual energy usage during the carbon trading period. In much the same way as emission trading works for industry, they will have to buy credits from other participants if exceeding their cap, or can sell to others if they have excess credits.

This information will be entered by participants themselves initially, but will be automated next year with online links to power company billing systems.

"Personal carbon trading is a way to bridge the gap between individual and collective action,” RSA project manager Matt Prescott told the Guardian newspaper.  “It would be a way for the government to give people a sense of purpose in their efforts to reduce their emissions."

Last year, the then environment secretary David Miliband floated the idea of a personal carbon credit card to track and trade carbon emissions associated with transport and heating purchases. The RSA says a workable compulsory nationwide scheme for individuals could be introduced by 2013and it hopes to expand its voluntary scheme in coming years.

The Guardian 11/9/07

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