Carbon budgets ‘could be in place by 2020′

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People might be more motivated to make energy saving measures such as install insulation if a proposal for a carbon budget for every person is taken up.

According to the RSA, a London-based think tank, there could be personal carbon budgets in place in some form by 2020.

Researchers on the Carbon Limited project concluded that introducing carbon budgets, requiring people to stick within them and allowing people with low carbon footprints to sell credits to big emitters, would be politically difficult to introduce and inequitable.

However Mr Prescott, the project director, told the Guardian that some form of the policy could be introduced in which local authorities or employers would take on the role of buying and selling allowances as well as making cuts in carbon emissions.

Such cuts could be achieved by investing in technologies such as photovoltaic panels or wind turbines.

There is already a European system by which large companies have their carbon emissions capped and can trade allowances.