Feed-in tariff personal carbon allowance: A case study of psychological change

Abstract

The scheme of Personal Carbon Allowance (PCA) system which has been under discussion in United Kingdom is one of the innovative policies which have the potential to solve energy and climate issues. The authors have been proposed Feed-in Tariff PCA (FIT-PCA) as a suitable policy for Japan. The main purpose of this scheme is to encourage citizens to manage their CO2 emissions from their daily lives, furthermore, it is expected to improve their attitudes to global environmental issues. In the psychological model to express their behavioral changes, it is assumed that the experience of FIT-PCA causes loss aversion, goal setting and eudaimonia, and they change their life styles to pro-environmental ones. In this study, a case study has been conducted for half a year in cooperation with 30 households to investigate the validity of the model and the change of their energy reduction behaviors and attitudes to global environmental issues. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.