The UK may need to introduce carbon rationing within three years if cuts in carbon emissions are not achieved, an influential think tank has warned.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for the government to consider the concept of rationing as a "plan B".
It has also recommended that the government runs a 'know your carbon limits' campaign along the lines of alcohol awareness advertising.
The report concludes that personal carbon trading is not the best option for reducing carbon emissions – something environmental campaign groups have been saying for years.
However, it stops short of recommending the abolition of the idea.
The government could come under pressure to give out extra credits if people found it too hard to reduce their emissions, the report said, and it would also be an expensive option compared to other ways of cutting emissions, like carbon taxation.
IPPR's associate director Matthew Lockwood said: "Rationing was introduced in September 1939, to help win the second world war.
"Now the government may need to think about rationing carbon if we are to win the fight against climate change.'>>>MORE
Here's Environment Analyst:
Left-leaning thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research has issued a report warning that if, at the end of the UK’s first carbon budget period in 2012, carbon emissions have not reduced, the government may have to introduce personal carbon trading - even though it would be expensive and difficult to implement.
David Symons, a director at WSP Environment & Energy, which runs its own corporate personal carbon trading scheme, said while mandatory schemes are likely to be "hugely expensive", voluntary schemes, run by communities or by companies, "have much potential".
- IPPR news release (http://www.ippr.org.uk/pressreleases/?id=3710)
- report
