Personalising Consumption? The legitimacy of an individual carbon quota scheme in the UK

TY - GEN

T1 - Personalising Consumption?

T2 - The legitimacy of an individual carbon quota scheme in the UK

AU - Brown, Lucy

PY - 2009/5

Y1 - 2009/5

N2 - Current UK lifestyles are largely natural resource depleting, CO2 emitting and therefore unsustainable. It is in part through institutional and social norms that people are ‘locked in’ to this behaviour. This paper focuses on current consumption patterns and the concept of governance to analyse the possible introduction of an individual carbon quota (ICQ) scheme as a sustainable consumption policy for the UK. Criticising ‘economism’, the thesis explores the legitimacy of an ICQ scheme, and investigates how such a scheme could personalise the climate change problem. With an individual carbon quota it is possible that people would be more connected to and involved in national global warming mitigating actions through personal management of their carbon allowance. Given the expected strong resistance towards an ICQ scheme, addressing the political feasibility is important. Interviews with pre-selected British professionals have therefore been conducted in order to add further insights. The research concludes that an ICQ scheme could be a successful sustainable consumption policy for the UK, but this will depend on it being framed in a way that enables the British public to perceive it as fair. A strong case must be made for such a scheme.

AB - Current UK lifestyles are largely natural resource depleting, CO2 emitting and therefore unsustainable. It is in part through institutional and social norms that people are ‘locked in’ to this behaviour. This paper focuses on current consumption patterns and the concept of governance to analyse the possible introduction of an individual carbon quota (ICQ) scheme as a sustainable consumption policy for the UK. Criticising ‘economism’, the thesis explores the legitimacy of an ICQ scheme, and investigates how such a scheme could personalise the climate change problem. With an individual carbon quota it is possible that people would be more connected to and involved in national global warming mitigating actions through personal management of their carbon allowance. Given the expected strong resistance towards an ICQ scheme, addressing the political feasibility is important. Interviews with pre-selected British professionals have therefore been conducted in order to add further insights. The research concludes that an ICQ scheme could be a successful sustainable consumption policy for the UK, but this will depend on it being framed in a way that enables the British public to perceive it as fair. A strong case must be made for such a scheme.

UR - https://www.ark.lu.se/en/search/PERSONALISING%20CONSUMPTION%3F%20The%20legitimacy%20of%20an%20individual%20carbon%20quota%20scheme%20in%20the%20UK/all/1/undefined

M3 - Other contribution

PB - Lund University

CY - Lund

ER -