午夜福利1000集合

I WILL be spending a lot of time in northern climes over the next few weeks, and I am preparing myself for a roller coaster of climate emotions. As I write, I am getting ready for a trip to Finland to report on some of the world鈥檚 most advanced sustainable industries. I am expecting to be inspired by what I see.

Later this month, I will arrive in Glasgow, UK, to cover the first week of the COP26 climate negotiations. The constant warnings that leaders are set to fail, yet again, to commit to the actions needed to avoid catastrophic warming have me worried that my optimism may not last.

You can read a comprehensive preview of COP26 on page 36 of this magazine, and I will keep my Finnish powders dry for later editions (though here鈥檚 a spoiler: wooden satellites!). But the two trips already promise to be a microcosm of covering the climate crisis, with occasional glimpses of a brighter, greener future all too quickly overshadowed by crushing realism.

There is still hope, however, and new, transformative ideas. One that seems ripe for further exploration is personal carbon allowances (PCAs), which do exactly what they say on the tin. Everybody in the scheme gets a PCA that is automatically debited when they pay for fuel, food or consumer goods.

The allowances are tradable, so anyone who emits less than their quota can sell the surplus to somebody who has over-egged it. You can already see the incentives at work here. The magic ingredient is that the total allowance in circulation is reduced over time. If this sounds familiar, that鈥檚 because it is 鈥� it is a personalised version of the emissions trading schemes that are already in operation for carbon-heavy industries in the EU, UK, China, some US states and elsewhere.

The idea of personalising carbon trading is nothing new. It was first proposed in the 1990s and has reappeared in various guises over the years, but has never made it off the drawing board. In the mid 2000s, for example, advanced economies began to sniff around PCAs as a way to incentivise lifestyle changes. France looked at transport, California at household energy and Ireland at its whole economy.

鈥淓verybody gets a personal carbon allowance, which is debited when they pay for fuel, food or consumer goods鈥�

Then, in 2008, the UK carried out an influential study that essentially snuffed out the idea for a generation. The proposal was that all UK adults would be issued with a mandatory carbon account, a bit like a bank account, and a card preloaded with carbon credits that would be debited every time its owner bought fuel for transport or paid an energy bill.

This apparently simple concept quickly collapsed under scrutiny. The , confusing, technologically challenging and more expensive than other measures. The PCA was, the study concluded, 鈥渁n idea currently ahead of its time鈥�. Since then, it has been an off-limits policy.

But some ideas that were ahead of their time eventually become of their time, and PCAs are now 鈥渞ipe for revisitation鈥�, according to a recent piece in the journal . All of the main barriers have fallen, say a team including in Tel Aviv, Israel, a member of the advisory group for the damning 2008 study.

Climate action is now in the political mainstream, and public awareness of it is much higher than it was in 2008. Technological advances have made putting it into action cheaper and easier. Smartphones are ubiquitous and AI is now advanced enough to accurately estimate individuals鈥� carbon emissions based on GPS and purchase data.

This, of course, would require people to surrender some privacy and accept some surveillance. But the time feels ripe, at least temporarily. Parag and her colleagues point out that the pandemic has shown that people are prepared to accept restrictions on individual liberty in the name of public health that were unthinkable only two years ago. As a result, they argue, people may be more prepared to accept similar limitations on personal freedom to achieve a healthier climate.

Maybe. What is really needed is a new study, or even a field trial, to test the waters again. Ideally, the researchers say, this would be carried out in 鈥渃limate-conscious technologically advanced countries鈥�. I know somewhere that fits this description. 鈥淐limate conscious and technologically advanced鈥� could pretty much be the first line of Finland鈥檚 national anthem 鈥� that is, if it actually had an official one.

One of my appointments in Helsinki is with environment minister Krista Mikkonen, so I might just make a suggestion. No, not for a national anthem, but for a trial of PCAs. Whatever the outcome of COP26, we are going to need every lever we can pull.