Proposal for global carbon rationing

Back in 2006 David Miliband, then Britain’s environment minister, proposed that everyone in the country should have an individual climate change allowance (see 20 July 2006 post). Now Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the German government’s climate protection adviser, has taken the argument a step further. He argues in an interview in Spiegel for an individual climate allowance for every person in the planet.

This proposal clearly amounts to support for rationing. Even if it is not implemented in practice it will reinforce the prevailing climate of austerity.