Would voters go for a carbon rationing scheme?

The Lazy Environmentalist: News from London's International Climate Forum

The plenary session chaired by Mark Lynas threw out a few interesting comments, one being from the grandfather of carbon rationing Meyer Hillman, who asked to hear from the panel and the attendees whether they supported his proposal for a national and international carbon rationing scheme based on an equal per capita allowance - each person gets the same amount and can then determine how they will use it, be it to heat their homes or fly off to the other side of the world. A quick straw poll threw up an interesting result: quite a few were not in favour. One of those against such a policy is Tony Juniper, and he gave a considered response. His concern was firstly, on an international scale, that different countries have different energy requirements. Compare those from the Arctic to those in Africa, say. Secondly, on a national basis, the concept of rationing will he believes lose elections. Quite simply, if one government were to implement carbon rationing, it would be a vote loser, and the next government would merely retract such a scheme. Juniper advocates the need to change peoples minds first. For the time being, to advance such a policy would be but a distraction from other environmental issues. To my mind these are persuasive arguments.