Comparison

Incentives for sustainable action take several forms:

Incentive Advantages Disadvantages
Personal satisfaction or sense of responsibility Only a small minority will take serious action. (Many us are well-intentioned but don't get far beyond good intentions.)
Social pressure/conformity No cost
Regulation Possibility of corruption? Depends on an authority to make decisions - likely to be less creative than a more open approach.
Taxes Revenue Difficulty and controversy involved in setting level of taxes; difficult for authority to raise taxes to the appropriate level due to political and electoral pressure.
Markets (e.g. carbon trading) Potential disadvantage: If allocations are given to existing emitters, that effectively rewards polluters. Strong motivation of personal gain; efficient allocation of resources.

Note that increased awarness and access to information can help people to make better choices - these are not incentives in themselves, but can make the incentives more effective.

Other suggestions

This section allows some room for speculation.

  • Instead of "cap and trade," combine the carbon tax and carbon trading schemes, with "cap, pay and trade" where emitters must pay a basic amount for the carbon credits, which they can then trade. This would raise money for energy efficiency and clean energy schemes and research, and reduce the basic injustice (alleged by some left-wing and green groups) of the biggest and most inefficient polluters being rewarded with valuable carbon credits. --suggested by Chriswaterguy · talk 19:17, 13 March 2007 (PDT)

Suggested projects

Consider the policy suggestion(s) above, e.g. "cap, pay and trade." Have they been suggested before? Model their impact.[expansion needed]

See also

External links

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