Our Lobbying

Our aim is to make the carbon allowances policy a widely accepted political priority for reducing the UK’s, or any nation’s, emissions. We put together compelling evidence and arguments to persuade decision makers why this solution is the right way forward.

Because the carbon allowances policy is so far-reaching, the benefits we are advocating can be divided into distinct lobbying areas:

• it would provide a huge boost to public awareness of the climate crisis as the carbon price regular citizens must pay on everything appears on all products and services in carbon tokens next to the cash price – an excellent alternative to current government decision-making which is heavily constrained by the perceived displeasure it might invoke amongst voters
• business and industry have clamoured for years for a “carbon price”. This provides the price signal that companies observe to guide their own CO₂ emissions reduction strategies. Up until we created this policy, a carbon price meant carbon taxes or an emissions trading scheme, but with the carbon allowances policy, the carbon price is put on everything that is bought or sold in the economy and cannot be ignored
• the voluntary carbon markets and the carbon offsetting industry have grown enormous, but gained a bad reputation. It desperately requires central governance, clear standards and rigorous monitoring to prevent the continued waste of money and resources that should be put towards real climate action. Through the creation of a carbon currency, people, communities and organisations that sequester or draw down CO₂ from the atmosphere via natural or mechanical processes can be paid for the CO₂ in the equivalent quantity of carbon tokens.
• western governments still have to deliver on promises of massive finance to the developing world to help fund climate mitigation and adaptation. Developing nations are now calling for financial flows from North to South for loss and damages caused by climate change. Many nations also have a record of huge historical emissions that dwarf the amounts emitted in poorer countries. All of these factors should be negotiated as one under the banner of climate justice, using the most suitable tool available: the GCI’s UNFCCC-compliant Contraction and Convergence framework^[1]Read more on Contraction and Convergence.

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