The Social Acceptability of Personal Carbon Trading in China

Abstract

Whether personal carbon trading (PCT) can be successfully implemented, as a public policy, critically depends on its social acceptability. For China, the biggest carbon emission country, public attitude towards personal carbon trading has a significant impact on its energy strategy or even the world’s. The purpose of this research is to investigate the social acceptability of personal carbon trading in China with the method of focus group and questionnaire. In order to understand Chinese citizens’ evaluations on personal carbon trading and how these attitudes are generated, researchers interviewed 32 individuals in four groups in-depth. Before and after the interview, questionnaires of almost the same content were sent to investigate whether more information on personal carbon trading will change interviewees’ attitudes towards it. A comparison was then made between public attitudes towards personal carbon trading and those towards carbon tax. Two significant conclusions are drawn from this study. First, personal carbon trading has gained more popularity compared with carbon tax. Second, the introduction of personal carbon trading to China still faces great challenges from the social atmosphere.

Keywords: Personal carbon trading; PCT; Carbon tax; social acceptability;