What if we all traded energy between ourselves?

This is a difficult time to promote personal carbon rationing. A February poll by Ipsos Mori found the proportion of UK adults who believe climate change is 'definitely' a reality has fallen from 44 per cent to just 31 per cent over the previous 12 months. The cold winter, allegations that scientists have distorted the evidence and the failure of the Copenhagen summit to achieve binding agreements could all be to blame. Action on climate change is unlikely to be a prominent issue in the forthcoming general election.

Yet for the believers, the campaign goes on. Later this month Dr David Fleming, a former economics spokesman and press secretary for the Ecology (now Green) party and a former chairman of the Soil Association, will re-publish his manifesto for Tradeable Energy Quotas in the hope of sparking some fresh interest.

'I've been banging on about this for 14 years,' he says. 'It may very well not happen, but if it doesn't, we are going to be in such big trouble. One just must not give up.'

21st century...

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