Abstract

Many of us are making changes in our lives towards a low carbon world, but to make this happen on a wider scale we need serious, hard-hitting economic measures too. What are the options, how do they work, and are they practical in the real world?”

The polluter pays principle means we should all pay for the carbon emissions we are responsible for, such as when we use energy from fossil fuel. Under the current EU scheme we pay for some of our emissions only, through tradable allowances for industrial emitters. However the price is very low. Could this be fixed? What would happen if all sectors including home energy and travel were included? What about a carbon tax, with a fixed price? Michael Grubb, Professor of International Energy and Climate Change Policy at UCL and senior advisor to Ofgem will explain some of the alternatives in current use and proposed. Maybe none of them are sufficient and we need something else as well. Our program includes plenty of time for questions and discussion. More details here