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Hey buddy, can you spare some carbon credits?

Personal carbon trading could enable consumers to reduce carbon emissions and make money too.

The UK firm Design Stream is working on developing a carbon credit card known as “the emissary.” The idea is similar to a strategy put on the table by UK Foreign Secretary (and former Environment Secretary) David Miliband last year during a speech in Delhi, India: “We’ll have credit cards in our wallets that represent both pounds and carbon dioxide points. When we purchase electricity, gas and fuel, it will not only cost money, but will be deducted from our carbon balance.”

Design Stream wants to launch a credit card that shows the impact of all kinds of consumer purchases on the environment. “Organizations like Friends of the Earth say that a carbon credit system is still years away,” says Design Stream Director Chaz Nandra. “But new technologies are developing so fast now that it will be inexpensive enough to develop the idea for the credit card on a commercial basis.”

Some even suggest children could be given carbon credits at birth, which would then (hopefully) increase in value, so by the time they’re adults they could cash some of them in to fund education, professional training or health care. Now there’s an idea with some serious growth potential.

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