As reported by The Guardian:
Government says new 'carbon price' will favour eco-friendly policy choices
Saturday December 22 2007
'Ministers have been instructed to factor into their calculations a notional "carbon price" when making all policy and investment decisions covering transport, construction, housing, planning and energy.'
I think this was a piece of good news for a change. The act of applying a carbon cost to all decisions makes low-carbon cost-competitive, even if the carbon cost is never really paid. If all decisions by government are done in this way, it makes it easier, from the politicians' point of view to create a real carbon price applicable to people and industries.
Governments (or, more precisely, the civil service) can get away with a virtual price, because their decision-making procedures are closely monitored and hard to circumvent. If policy dictates that the price will be included in all cost calculations, then any decision made on purely cost grounds will probably be low-carbon.
Individuals and corporations, on the other hand, make un-monitored decisions, and can ignore a virtual price, knowing full well that it is imaginary with only their conscience (or that of their customers) to hold them to their low carbon ideals.
So if the government were to declare, in a year or two, that they were creating a carbon tax to be applied to all electricity, cement and fuel, priced at the same value they are already applying to their decisions (and probably reducing fuel duty by a similar amount to appease the motoring lobby), they would get a kinder reaction than if they had not demonstrated their own willingness to bear the costs involved.
Take this together with a recent accusation by Jeremy Leggett:
Civil servants have played a damaging role in skewing UK policy away from renewables
Thursday January 3, 2008
'Department of Trade and Industry officials fought a rearguard action. Nuclear was granted a place on the back burner, to be reviewed after five years.'
and you can see why the politicians are driven to forcing civil servants to act in the Earth's favour rather than the economy's.
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3 comments:
Hey thanks for the great blog, I love this stuff. I don’t usually do much for Earth Day but with everyone going green these days, I thought I’d try to do my part.
I am trying to find easy, simple things I can do to help stop global warming (I don’t plan on buying a hybrid). Has anyone seen that www.EarthLab.com is promoting their Earth Day (month) challenge, with the goal to get 1 million people to take their carbon footprint test in April?... I took the test, it was easy and only took me about 2 minutes and I am planning on lowering my score with some of their tips.
I am looking for more easy fun stuff to do. If you know of any other sites worth my time let me know.
Thanks Adrian
Here's some sites dedicated to giving tips of the sort you need.
Friends of the Earth Tip of the Day
The Guardian Tread Lightly Page
Transition Towns - for when you are ready to start organising your community
Facebook I am Green application
Low Carbon Economy - UK advice site
Hey thanks for the great blog, I love this stuff. I don’t usually do much for Earth Day but with everyone going green these days, I thought I’d try to do my part.
I am trying to find easy, simple things I can do to help stop global warming (I don’t plan on buying a hybrid). Has anyone seen that www.EarthLab.com is promoting their Earth Day (month) challenge, with the goal to get 1 million people to take their carbon footprint test in April? I took the test, it was easy and only took me about 2 minutes and I am planning on lowering my score with some of their tips.
I am looking for more easy fun stuff to do. If you know of any other sites worth my time let me know.
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