We Need Cap-and-Trade For Individuals As Well As Companies
Personal carbon allowances may be a truly big idea whose time has finally come. There should be an app for that.
Surrendering those allowances.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergTo mitigate a huge problem like climate change, we need to be open to big ideas. One of these has been around since the 1990s but may only now be ready for prime time: the issuance of tradable carbon allowances not only to companies (as in existing cap-and-trade systems) but to all of us individually.
In essence, this kind of flexible rationing follows the same logic whether applied upstream to industry, as in the European Union’s emissions-trading system, or downstream to every single consumer. Policymakers cap the overall amount of carbon to be emitted and reduce that over time. They then hand out free permits to emit the carbon, which people can buy or sell in the aftermarket.