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Out of the Shadows: What’s Behind DEFRA’s New Approach to the Price of Carbon
By Elizabeth A. Stanton and Frank Ackerman, July 2008
In 2007, the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) established a “shadow price” for carbon emissions for internal decision making; the shaky foundations of that shadow price are the subject of this critique. The report addresses logical, technical, and ethical issues to show that the DEFRA methodology is fundamentally flawed. The conclusion sets out policy recommendations, including a brief description of a different methodology that could be used to develop an ethical and efficient UK carbon price.
Frank Ackerman and Liz Stanton work closely with the Friends of the Earth – England, Wales and Northern Ireland., a chapter of the international grassroots organization that challenges the current model of economic and corporate globalization, and promotes solutions that will help to create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.
Download the report (pdf):
Out of the Shadows:
What’s Behind DEFRA’s New Approach to the Price of Carbon