Influences on Attitudes to a Personal Carbon Trading System

There are mixed attitudes to the affect Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) can have on global warming and carbon emissions. The NICHE (Norfolk Island Carbon Health Evaluation) project has been developed to explore attitudes towards PCT. The researchers have designed the project to investigate links between health, obesity and an individual’s carbon footprint. The first stages of the project undertaken in 2012 involve development of point-of-sale applications, personal carbon consumption web site and collection of data to establish a baseline measuring key health indicators and attitudes to climate change and PCT. This paper reports the findings from the correlation analysis of the key variables from the baseline survey. Correlation analysis was used to examine relationships among the variables. The significant relationships identified from the baseline survey will be re-examined in the latter stages of the project during 2014

Assessment of Voluntary Carbon Markets

The goal of this study was to assess the viability of the existing voluntary carbon market to support the development of a specific business concept in that market. A review of literature and market data was employed to determine current and projected future market demand and to segment and analyze the market. Organizations and individuals were surveyed concerning their receptiveness to a variety of product options in the voluntary market. Seventy percent of individuals were likely to participate in the most favoured option, with greatest receptiveness from self-identified “green” consumers. Ninety percent of organizations would be willing to pay to employ employee generated offsets as part of larger sustainability initiatives. The strongest response came from mid-size or larger organizations that are not subject to existing or proposed emissions regulations. A strategy for entry into the voluntary market is proposed based on these favourable results

ACIS 2013: Information systems: Transforming the Future: Proceedings of the 24th Australasian Conference on Information Systems

Edited volume of the ACIS 2013 conference proceedings. Reproduced with kind permission from the copyright owner

The Research Progress of the Social Acceptability of Personal Carbon Trading in UK

Nowadays, the global warming has become a crucial issue result from a large number of greenhouse gases emissions, and individual carbon emissions account for a large proportion of total carbon dioxide emissions. In the current climate background, Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) which aimed at reducing carbon emissions from household energy and personal transportation has aroused widespread concern in the community. Social acceptability, as a significant evaluation index of whether the policy can be implemented, has become a hot topic in the research of Personal Carbon Trading. UK has studied this area for decades, this paper reviews the relative research progress in UK, analyzes a variety of influencing factors in the social acceptability of Personal Carbon Trading, compares Personal Carbon Trading with other carbon reduction alternatives in the social acceptance, sums up the research methods used in those studies. It is obvious that these studies are meaningful for improvement of the personal Carbon Trading scheme and promotion of new idea as new effective policy implementation to control the carbon emission. Keywords: Personal Carbon Trading; Social Acceptability; Carbon Tax；Up-streaming system; Research Metho

Energy efficiency and using less – a social sciences and humanities annotated bibliography

The challenge: * Technological progress and changes in energy supply are not sufficient for a transition to a low-carbon energy system; demand also needs to be considered. Energy efficiency and reducing total consumption - the topics of this bibliography - are typical elements of a demand side approach. * The uptake of energy efficient technologies, and understanding how we might use less energy, represent big challenges for researchers, policymakers, practitioners and end-users themselves. The aim: * European energy policy has so far mainly relied on research from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Energy-related Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) have been significantly underrepresented. This bibliography aims to discuss different disciplinary perspectives on energy efficiency and using less and to demonstrate their relevance for energy policy. Coverage: * A major focus of this bibliography is on behaviour and behavioural change. The bibliography highlights the diversity of end-users and their needs, the impacts they experience, abilities, as well as the range of sites where energy is consumed. * It also looks at how SSH research addresses more structural elements of demand - such as markets, institutions, and policy - and how these interact. Key findings: * There is no such thing as a one size fits all approach; different disciplines frame the problems of energy efficiency and using less differently, and do not always agree. Economics is very highly represented in research about energy efficiency, closely followed by Sociology. Other disciplines such as Urban Studies and Industrial Design are slowly becoming part of the work. * Most disciplines focus mainly on mainstream types of users and use. Fewer studies focus on the exceptions - deviants, others, non-users or energy poor, excessive users - or low-energy practices such as sleep, music making or sports. * Electricity is the main focus of most social science research on energy use and efficiency, possibly due to a focus on monitoring savings which is more difficult for gas and energy for hot water use. * There is an overrepresentation of work on feedback devices and smart meters, in contrast to more everyday technologies such as water heaters or washing machines. Several studies urge for more study of this everyday material culture because it strongly shapes how users can engage in using less or using more efficiently; some technologies are simply built to have high energy use. * Less research is done on the responsibility of stakeholders (other than the end-user) for the energy transition, especially the market. It is argued that markets are not neutral or depoliticised, but bear responsibility for the energy transition too. * Dominant areas of research include: a focus on the gap between awareness and actual energy behaviour action; and rebound effects, which may arise when increased energy efficiency leads to lower costs for energy which in turn may lead to increased energy consumption. * New areas of research include new demand side initiatives, services/business models and markets such as peer-to-peer, DIY, and community approaches to engagement. * Most demand side approaches in the policy domain focus on cost reduction, education and communication. Insights from Social Sciences such as Sociology, Anthropology, Urban studies, Ethics, and Science and Technology Studies see less uptake in the policy domain

Removing barriers to environmental action : the impact of personal cap-and-trade systems on individuals’ sense of efficacy and personal responsibility for climate change

In complex industrialized societies, it is virtually impossible for individuals to know the environmental impact of their consumption. A personal cap and trade system, which assigns citizens limited, tradable allocations of pollution (e.g., carbon pollution), can link individuals directly to their environmental impact and enable them to chart a path to sustainable living. To explore public reactions to this system, an Amazon Mechanical Turk sample of individuals residing in Canada viewed a video describing either a carbon tax system or a personal cap and trade system. A personal cap and trade system based on allocations of kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (kgCO2e) was viewed as significantly more likely than carbon taxes to enable Canadians to reduce their carbon consumption and to live more sustainably. A range of public concerns that might limit support for carbon pricing systems were identified with qualitative analysis of participant comments about the systems