Personal Carbon Budgets for Transport

Australia’s transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are high and continue to grow, with current levels approximately one-third higher than in 1990 and increasing by around 1% annually. Efforts to curtail and reverse this growth have not been successful to date. In recent times, national policy development and debate has centred on market-based mechanisms to reduce GHG emissions, namely an emissions trading scheme (ETS) and carbon taxation. Potential limitations for such measures in the transport sector emerged during this debate, particularly arising from market failures in the ETS. Alternative, supplementary or complementary policy measures to these market-based approaches are needed to address transport emissions; one such measure could involve limiting emissions through a rationing system. Several prominent authors have raised the concept of personal carbon budgets (and personal carbon trading) as an approach to reducing GHG emissions. Potentially, such a measure could be applied to the transport sector or designed to include transport with other economic sectors, although there has been little consideration of this issue for Australian transport. This paper outlines Australia’s transport GHG emissions and important trends, describes the carbon budget concept, considers how it could be applied to transport, and identifies key issues that will need to be considered in further formulation and implementation of public policy to apply the carbon budget concept, including the possible limits to its usefulness.