(Press-News.org) To achieve public support for a transformation to a low carbon society, politicians would be advised to implement a quantity-based energy quota system, with a fixed and decreasing cap on total use, rather than relying on carbon pricing and taxation mechanisms, according to a new study.
In a wide-ranging paper published in the Carbon Management journal, researchers from the Fleming Policy Centre - including Dr Victoria Hurth from Plymouth University - set out the potential of a policy framework termed Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) for meeting the ambitious carbon emissions reductions targets required to address the climate crisis.
They argue that TEQs offer the most effective, equitable and expeditious way to bridge the gulf between climate science and political reality.
Since publication, the paper - Reconciling scientific reality with realpolitik: moving beyond carbon pricing to TEQs: an integrated, economy-wide emissions cap - has become the journal's second most read article ever.
Uniquely among climate policy solutions, TEQs addresses the bind that arises because "realists about climatology rightly argue that physical reality bats last and does not negotiate", while "realists within politics argue with equal validity that any approach that tries to radically transform society against society's wishes will be resented and, soon enough, rejected".
The TEQs framework, explain the authors, anticipates and overcomes some of the reasons for public resistance to transformative climate policies.
For example, one of the key reasons for the unpopularity of policies such as carbon taxes is that they fail to positively engage all people and organisations.
Instead, by making energy more expensive, they tend to be regressive and even divisive, by imposing a greater financial strain on the poorest in society, who can end up priced out of the energy market and suffering fuel poverty.
In contrast, TEQs would increase equality of access to energy, meaning everyone would get a guaranteed entitlement (in the form of allocated TEQs units) to purchase energy. Above that standard entitlement, the more you use, the more you would pay, since you would have to purchase additional TEQs units.
Because the units are tradable, and so can be sold as well as bought, intensive fossil fuel users would effectively have to pay lower energy users for the privilege of using more than their fair share.
Dr Hurth, Lecturer in Marketing at Plymouth University, said: "According to a 2013 study by the Centre for Sustainable Energy, 71% of households in the lowest three income deciles would benefit from implementing TEQs, whereas 55% in the highest three income deciles would face higher costs. Not only that, the hard cap would mean that the TEQs price (set at national level) would rise if too many people use more than their fair share, so the framework would create a shared incentive to lower overall energy consumption, motivating all energy users to cooperate on solutions to the energy and climate crisis. Finally, TEQs would guarantee that a nation meets its emissions reductions targets."
INFORMATION:
The research carried out at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in collaboration with scientists at the University of Otago in New Zealand, tested the effects of lithium chloride on cartilage and found that it slowed the degradation associated with osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis results in degradation of cartilage in joints leading to pain and immobility. It currently affects a third of over 45s in the UK and there are currently no treatments that can prevent it.
The study used bovine cartilage samples exposed to inflammatory molecules to mimic the effects of arthritis ...
Rudeness in the workplace isn't just unpleasant: it's also contagious.
Encountering rude behavior at work makes people more likely to perceive rudeness in later interactions, a University of Florida study shows. That perception makes them more likely to be impolite in return, spreading rudeness like a virus.
"When you experience rudeness, it makes rudeness more noticeable," said lead author Trevor Foulk, a doctoral student in management at UF's Warrington College of Business Administration. "You'll see more rudeness even if it's not there."
The findings, published ...
Amsterdam, July 16, 2015 - A tax on sugary drinks that depends on the number of calories or amount of sugar per liter could help fight obesity, suggests new research published in Social Science & Medicine. While a few countries are already trialing a tax on sugary drinks, taxing the dose would encourage drinks companies to offer low-calorie alternatives.
Worldwide, an estimated 1.9 billion adults are overweight, and of these 600 million are obese. Obesity increases the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes; in the US alone, obesity-related healthcare costs around $200 ...
Like most health professionals, David Olson has known for some time of the dangers posed by excessive stress. His latest research, though, is giving surprising new insight into how chronic stress in childhood can have an impact years after it occurred in women giving birth.
"Chronic stress is one of the better predictors of preterm birth," says Olson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. "In fact, if women are exposed to two or more adverse childhood experiences while growing up, their risk of preterm ...
Air pollution from wildfires may increase risk of cardiac arrests, and other sudden acute heart problems, researchers have found.
Lead author, Dr Anjali Haikerwal, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, said while breathing wildfire smoke was linked to respiratory problems such as asthma - evidence of an association between wildfire smoke exposure and heart problems has been inconsistent.
In the new study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers examined the association between exposure to tiny particulate ...
Researchers have discovered a new technique to enhance brain excitability that could improve physical performance in healthy individuals such as athletes and musicians.
The technique could also improve treatments for neurological and neuropsychological conditions such as stroke, depression and chronic pain.
The idea of stimulating different parts of the brain with electricity may sound futuristic, but these types of treatments have a remarkably long history. Early physicians and scientists such as Claudius Galen (the Roman physician) and Avicenna (the Persian physician) ...
A simple, lower-cost new method for DNA profiling of human hairs developed by the University of Adelaide should improve opportunities to link criminals to serious crimes.
The researchers have modified existing laboratory methods and been able to produce accurate DNA profiles from trace amounts at a much higher success rate.
"Technological advancements over the last 10 years have allowed police and forensic scientists to profile crime-scene DNA from ever smaller and more challenging samples collected from fingerprints, skin cells, saliva and hairs," says Associate Professor ...
Scientists, including SFU professor Peter Ruben, have found that sudden death caused by cardiac arrhythmia can be triggered by changes in body temperature. The study is published in the Journal of Physiology.
The soccer player who drops dead in the middle of a game, or the infant who dies during sleep is often a victim of arrhythmia. Sudden cardiac death has several causes, including inheritable mutations in our DNA affecting structure and function of proteins in the heart. Simon Fraser University professor Peter Ruben found when studying the proteins that underlie electrical ...
A recent study looks at why some children put on weight faster than others. The study's goal is to identify factors that can lead to obesity.
Assistant Professor Silje Steinsbekk and Professor Lars Wichstrøm at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Department of Psychology are conducting the survey. "We've looked to see if physical activity, television time and appetite traits can explain why some children's body mass index (BMI) increases more than others' do," says Steinsbekk.
At the clinic, most parents have seen the percentile curves on the ...
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- July 15, 2015 -- Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have identified a genetic mutation associated with the appearance of premature aging and severe loss of body fat in children.
TGen's Center for Rare Childhood Disorders found that the appearance of premature aging, a neonatal form of Progeroid syndrome, in a 3-year-old girl was caused by a mutation in the gene CAV1, according to a study published today in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
The Center for Rare Childhood Disorders was established in 2010 to examine the ...
