Skip to main content

Personal Carbon Trading and Individual Mitigation Accountability

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Transformative Climates and Accountable Governance

Abstract

National carbon budgets provide transparency and accountability to international climate change mitigation efforts, but are merely notional at the individual level, providing little guidance for reducing personal carbon footprints. This chapter examines personal carbon trading, budgeting carbon emissions from energy and transport at the individual level, and considers several ethics issues related to the scheme that have also been applied to cap and trade systems at the national level. Despite its limitations, personal carbon trading can hold individuals responsible for their polluting behavior, be designed to reflect normative commitments to equity in climate ethics, and help raise awareness about climate change and social decarbonization efforts through effective personal mitigation actions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aldred, J. (2012). The ethics of emissions trading. New Political Economy, 17(3), 339–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broome, J. (2012). Climate matters: Ethics in a warming world. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bumpus, A., & Liverman, D. (2008). Accumulation by decarbonization and the governance of carbon offsets. Economic Geography, 84(2), 127–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caney, S. (2010). Markets, morality and climate change: What, if anything, is wrong with emissions trading? New Political Economy, 15(2), 197–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caney, S., & Hepburn, C. (2011). Carbon trading: Unethical, unjust, and ineffective? Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 69, 201–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castree, N. (2003). Commodifying what nature? Progress in Human Geography, 27(3), 273–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dobson, A. (2006). Thick cosmopolitanism. Political Studies, 54(1), 165–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fawcett, T. (2010). Personal carbon trading: A policy ahead of its time? Energy Policy, 38, 6868–6876.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, D. (2007). Energy and the common purpose. London: The Lean Economy Connection. Available at http://www.teqs.net/book/teqs.pdf.

  • Harvey, D. (2007). Neoliberalism as creative destruction. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political Science, 610, 22–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyams, K. (2009). A just response to climate change: Personal carbon allowances and the normal-functioning approach. Journal of Social Philosophy, 40(2), 237–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keohane, R. O. (2006). Accountability in world politics. Scandinavian Political Studies, 29, 75–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kosoy, N., & Corbera, E. (2010). Payments for ecosystem services as commodity fetishism. Ecological Economics, 69, 1228–1236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. (2001). Distributing responsibilities. The Journal of Political Philosophy, 9(4), 453–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. (2008). Global justice and climate change: How should responsibilities be distributed? The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, 28, 117–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Page, E. (2011). Cashing in on climate change: Political theory and global emissions trading. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 14(2), 259–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parag, Y., & Strickland, D. (2010). Personal carbon trading: A radical policy option for reducing emissions from the domestic sector. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 53(1), 29–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sagoff, M. (2002). Controlling global climate: The debate over pollution trading. In V. V. Gehring & W. A. Galston (Eds.), Philosophical dimensions of public policy (pp. 311–318). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandel, M. (2005). Should we buy the right to pollute? Public philosophy: Essays on morality in politics (pp. 93–96). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spiekermann, K. (2014). Buying low, flying high: Carbon offsets and partial compliance. Political Studies, 62(4), 913–929.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. (1992). United Nations Framework Convention on Climate. Available at https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf.

  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (2001a). Decision 15/CP.7: Principles, nature and scope of the mechanisms pursuant to Articles 6, 12 and 17 of the Kyoto Protocol. Available at http://cdm.unfccc.int/EB/rules/modproced.html.

  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (2001b). The Marrakesh accords & Marrakesh declaration. Available at https://unfccc.int/cop7/documents/accords_draft.pdf.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steve Vanderheiden .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Vanderheiden, S. (2019). Personal Carbon Trading and Individual Mitigation Accountability. In: Edmondson, B., Levy, S. (eds) Transformative Climates and Accountable Governance. Palgrave Studies in Environmental Transformation, Transition and Accountability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97400-2_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97400-2_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97399-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97400-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics