UK volunteers test out personal carbon trading

Carbon trading is nothing new. The concept of having allowances of carbon credits and buying and selling them to those who need more or less of them has been around for at least a decade. But now it's going a step further -- people like you and me may soon be trading personal carbon credits with each other.

This week, 1,000 volunteers in the UK started a five-month trial to see how willing they, and in turn we, are to embrace the concept of personal carbon credits. The scheme's been set up by the RSA's Carbon Limited project and IT company Atos Origin, who have linked the whole shebang with BP and Nectar.

Here's how it works. Every time one of the volunteers goes to a BP petrol station and swipes their Nectar loyalty card, a certain number of carbon credits will automatically be deducted, depending on the amount of fuel they buy. People will be able to view their credits online and make lifestyle adjustments to make sure they don't use up their credits -- or trade with others to get more of them.

It'll be interesting to see how this works. At a basic level it's a good idea, but I think they'll find that people will cheat by filling up at Shell or Exxon if they've used too many credits. Or is that just me? Well, at least if people do cheat, they'll know they're doing it and it'll tell them something useful about their habits.

If the project works well then it would be good to expand it beyond just petrol. Why not keep tabs on other carbon 'credits' like electricity, heating, holidays and more? One thing's for sure, SmartPlanet will be keeping an eye on this one.

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