...When the topic of TEQs was examined by the UK All Parliamentary Committee more than a decade ago, they deemed it the best of all personal carbon trading schemes. They also said it was “ahead of its time”. And over the years they quietly forgot about it. One has to ask why.
I don’t think it is too hard for an economist to look at TEQs and say, “Oh, with energy declining year by year, it will mean the economy will decline.” Economists will know that as total energy grows so does the GDP – in lockstep – according to the graphs. No doubt Treasury officials will be telling government not to consider a bar of TEQs and to put the environmentalist’s nice idea quietly in the bin. Ah yes there is a pat on the head for those well meaning climate campaigners as they leave.
The powerful men that Monbiot referred to are no doubt sitting at the top of Treasury ready to advise any enthusiastic MP or Minister that the climate be damned, the economy has to grow.