The overall economic and environmental effectiveness of a combined carbon footprinting and feedback system - Climate Bonus project report (WP6)

This report is the fifth in a series of reports produced by the Climate Bonus study. In this project is surveyed what are the possibilities and effectiveness of the combined use of (1) verified carbon footprints (possibly visualised through labels), (2) personalised monitoring and feedback services to households regarding the greenhouse gas intensities of their purchases, (3) a reward system (bonuses) for consumers who manage to reduce the embodied emissions, and (4) a secondary reward system for retailers that successfully reduce the emission intensity of their sales. The present report starts with a review of how the large scale introduction of the envisaged carbon footprinting and feedback system would interact with existing policy instruments and measures. Subsequently, it discusses the options and obstacles regarding economically sensible deployment of the system, and tentative cost ranges. Finally, it introduced preliminary estimates of the emission reduction potential the envisaged system may be able to tap into and of the value the emission reduction potential could represent. As regards realisation of the potential some suggestions are done as regards improving the fit with existing instruments.