Personal Carbon Trading and fuel price increases in the transport sector: an exploratory study of public response in the UK

Large reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are required in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Road transport is a significant contributor to UK CO2 emissions, with the majority arising from personal road transport. This paper analyses Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) as a potentially powerful climate change policy tool and presents findings from an exploratory survey of public opinion. A working model of a PCT scheme with a fixed carbon cap was designed to achieve a 60% reduction of CO2 emissions from personal road transport by 2050. A proportion of the annual carbon budget would be given to individuals as a free carbon permit allocation. There is an opportunity to sell unused permits. Fuel price increases (FPI) were recognised as having the potential to achieve an identical emissions target at a much lower cost. A series of individual interviews were conducted to explore opinions related to the impacts, effectiveness, fairness and acceptability of both measures. Bespoke software was used to record behavioural response. The findings indicate that certain design aspects of the PCT scheme led to it being preferred to the FPI and suggest that the potential behavioural response to PCT may be greater than for a FPI. However, given that the sample was small and biased towards the highly educated and those with above average incomes, the findings should be considered as preliminary indications. Further detailed research is required

A new integrated assessment framework for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa : the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)

Funding statement This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council through UK Research and Innovation as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, AFRICAP programme, grant number BB/P027784/1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa.

Improving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate-food-emissions modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).

The Impact of Domestic Energy Efficiency Retrofit Schemes on Householder Attitudes and Behaviours

Retrofitting existing housing stock to improve energy efficiency is often required to meet climate mitigation, public health and fuel poverty targets. Increasing uptake and effectiveness of retrofit schemes requires understanding of their impacts on householder attitudes and behaviours. This paper reports results of a survey of 500 Kirklees householders in the UK, where the Kirklees Warm Zone scheme took place. This was a local government led city-scale domestic retrofit programme that installed energy efficiency measures at no charge in over 50,000 houses. The results highlight key design features of the scheme, socio-economic and attitudinal factors that affected take-up of energy efficiency measures and impacts on behaviour and energy use after adoption. The results emphasise the role that positive feedback plays in reinforcing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours of participants and in addressing concerns of non-participants. Our findings have implications for the design and operation of future domestic energy efficiency retrofit schemes

Tradable carbon permits : their potential to reduce CO2 emissions from the transport sector

Given the severity of the impacts arising from climate change and the short timeframe available regarding mitigation, it is imperative to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Road transport is a significant contributor to UK CO2 emissions, with the majority arising from personal road transport. A working model of a Tradable Carbon Permit (TCP) scheme was therefore designed to achieve a 60% reduction of CO2 emissions from personal road transport by 2050. A proportion of the annual carbon budget would be given to individuals as a free carbon permit allocation. Following the consumption of the free carbon permits, an individual must then purchase any permits required in the future from a centralised market. Alternatively, there is an opportunity to sell unused permits. Fuel price increases were recognised as having the potential to achieve an identical emissions target at a much lower cost. Hence, conventional elasticities were used to derive a comparative measure to the TCP scheme. A range of practical considerations regarding both policies were discussed, including approximate costings, social impacts and implementation. An innovative survey design was developed to explore the feasibility of applying a TCP scheme and a system of fuel price increases (FPI) to the personal road transport sector. A series of individual interviews were conducted to gather opinions related to the impacts (including costs and benefits), effectiveness (ability to meet the emissions target), fairness and acceptability of both measures. Bespoke software was used to record behavioural response and display respondents' travel data alongside their free permit allocation and estimated spending at three points in time. A range of qualitative and quantitative results are reported. The findings revealed a stark contrast in opinions and attitudes towards the TCP scheme and FPI, with the TCP scheme being more favourable in every aspect in addition to achieving a much greater level of behavioural response and hence carbon reductions

Personal Transport Emissions Within London: Exploring Policy Scenarios and Carbon Reductions up to 2050

This research explored the possibility of achieving significant carbon reductions from personal land-based transport using London as a case study. A profile of carbon emissions from personal land-based transport modes was derived using Great Britain National Travel Survey (NTS) data and a range of carbon emissions factors. A carbon calculator provided carbon consumption per trip. NTS survey data were grossed up to national level using Census of Population data. A baseline of carbon emissions, based on equal per capita consumption, was projected to 2050 using estimates of future population. Four future scenarios were developed and tested using this data. These were: (a) based on the London Mayor's Climate Change Action Plan; (b) a technology focussed scenario; (c) a personal carbon trading scenario; and (d) a radical walking and cycling scenario. Results suggest that the latter two scenarios have the potential to achieve emissions reductions in excess of 80%, whilst scenarios (a) and (b) are somewhat weaker, though still achieve substantial reductions in carbon emissions compared to business as usual

Hectares Occupied by Present-Day Pasturelands and Animal Feed Crops

This multi-band raster data represents hectacres of pastureland that are currently occupied by feed crops. The pixel band ranges represent two estimated values: areas sourced from the lowest carbon areas and areas sourced from the highest carbon areas. The data is captured at a resolution of 5 arcminutes over the global domain and is derived from data collected approximately over the past two decades (2000-2020). This data is released with an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license

Hectares Occupied by Present-Day Pasturelands and Animal Feed Crops

This multi-band raster data represents hectacres of pastureland that are currently occupied by feed crops. The pixel band ranges represent two estimated values: areas sourced from the lowest carbon areas and areas sourced from the highest carbon areas. The data is captured at a resolution of 5 arcminutes over the global domain and is derived from data collected approximately over the past two decades (2000-2020). This data is released with an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license

Geospatial Data: Carbon Opportunity Cost of Animal-Sourced Food Production on Land

This item contains two multi-band raster data layers, which represent estimates of carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land. The data is captured at a resolution of 5 arcminutes over the global domain and is derived from data collected approximately over the past two decades (2000-2020). The pixel values measure estimates in tonnes of potential vegetation per hectare that are suppressed by pasturelands and present-day feed crops. In the carbon opportunity cost layer (nyu_2451_60073.zip) the bands represent three estimates of carbon in potential vegetation: median, low (5th percentile), and high (95th percentile). In the animal hectacres layer (nyu_2451_60074.zip), the pixel band ranges represent two estimated values: areas sourced from the lowest carbon areas and areas sourced from the highest carbon areas. This data is released with an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Users may cite this collection with https://doi.org/10.17609/q5pe-7r68/. Refer to the URI locations for geospatial data preview and download