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Personal carbon trading: a potential “stealth intervention” for obesity reduction?
Author(s) -
Egger Garry
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01183.x
Subject(s) - global warming , carbon offset , climate change mitigation , renewable energy , greenhouse gas , environmental economics , intervention (counseling) , emissions trading , business , natural resource economics , fossil fuel , climate change , economics , ecology , engineering , psychology , waste management , biology , psychiatry
The obesity epidemic and global warming are linked through energy use. A personal carbon trading scheme aimed at reducing fossil fuel usage could act as a “stealth intervention” for reducing obesity by increasing personal energy use. Such a scheme would complement a corporate “cap and trade” system for carbon emissions, which should increase the relative price of processed, energy‐dense foods. The scheme would work by reducing global carbon emissions to a sustainable level (contraction), while offering potential for trade of emission rights between frugal and profligate users of non‐renewable energy (convergence). A key goal would be changed attitudes to conspicuous (and obesogenic) consumption. Adoption of the scheme would make healthy choices the easy choice.