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Personal carbon allowances revisited

Nature Sustainability volume 4, pages 1025–1031 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Here we discuss how personal carbon allowances (PCAs) could play a role in achieving ambitious climate mitigation targets. We argue that recent advances in AI for sustainable development, together with the need for a low-carbon recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, open a new window of opportunity for PCAs. Furthermore, we present design principles based on the Sustainable Development Goals for the future adoption of PCAs. We conclude that PCAs could be trialled in selected climate-conscious technologically advanced countries, mindful of potential issues around integration into the current policy mix, privacy concerns and distributional impacts.

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Fig. 1: PCA influence mechanisms for delivering emission reductions.

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Acknowledgements

F.F.N. acknowledges the KTH Climate Action Centre for providing a platform for this research. T.F. acknowledges funding from UK Research and Innovation via the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (grant agreement number EP/R035288/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. KTH Climate Action Centre & KTH division of Energy Systems, School of Industrial Engineering and Management, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Francesco Fuso Nerini

  2. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Tina Fawcett

  3. School of Sustainability, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel

    Yael Parag

  4. Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London, London, UK

    Paul Ekins

Authors
  1. Francesco Fuso Nerini
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  2. Tina Fawcett
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Contributions

F.F.N. led the manuscript conception, design, writing and revisions. T.F., Y.P. and P.E. all contributed to the design of the work, content development, writing and revisions.

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Correspondence to Francesco Fuso Nerini.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information: Nature Sustainability thanks Jing Wan and Edwin Woerdman for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Fuso Nerini, F., Fawcett, T., Parag, Y. et al. Personal carbon allowances revisited. Nat Sustain 4, 1025–1031 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00756-w

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