Launch of first UK employee carbon ration scheme

The UK’s first employee carbon ration scheme to reduce individual carbon emissions is launched, reports Envido.

WSP has launched the UK’s first employee carbon rationing scheme that is aimed to monitor employees’ personal carbon emissions, including home energy bills, petrol purchases and holiday flights. People who emit more than their ration of carbon emissions are having their pay docked in a trial that could lead to carbon emission rationing schemes being reintroduced via the workplace.

After the trial demonstrated the effectiveness of fining people for exceeding their personal carbon emissions target, employees are required to submit quarterly carbon emission reports detailing their carbon consumption. Workers who take a long-haul flight are likely to be fined for exceeding their annual carbon ration scheme unless they take drastic action in other areas, such as switching off the central heating or cutting out almost all car journeys.

Those who exceed their carbon ration scheme pay a fine for every kilogram of carbon they emit over the limit. The money is deducted from their pay and the level of the fine is printed on payslips. Those who consume less than their carbon ration scheme are rewarded at the same rate per kilogram. The maximum that an employee can earn or be fined has been capped at £100, but is likely to rise once staff has grown accustomed to the idea.

The idea of personal quotas for carbon emissions through carbon ration schemes is being advocated by the Institute for Public Policy Research. Employees would be given a number of free “carbon credits”, to buy gas and electricity for their homes, fuel for cars and plane tickets for holidays. Those who did not use all their carbon credits could sell the excess to those who exceeded their carbon emission quota.

In UK the carbon ration schemes target of this year is 5.5 tonnes of carbon, which is one tonne above the national average for home energy and personal transport. The US carbon ration schemes target is likely to be double the UK target, to reflect greater carbon emissions per person.

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