The National Personal Carbon Trading System is easy to understand. The version favoured by The Republic works like this: Canadians currently buy about 40 billion litres of gasoline per year. To reduce our national greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of gasoline by 5%, we need to reduce overall gasoline purchases in Canada to 38 billion litres.

To achieve this, the government passes legislation requiring gas stations to collect permits from customers equal to the number of litres of gas someone wants to buy. Then it freely issues 38 billion permits to all adult Canadians. Each Canadian adult would receive in the first year an electronic card similar to a bank debit card that would have on it about 1,900 permits. (We currently buy, on average, about 2,000 litres a year). Each time a driver wants to fuel up at a gas station, their card is swiped and the necessary permits are deducted.

Near the end of the year, some people will have used up all their 1,900 permits, while others (like those who got rid of their car) will have many permits left over. Anyone will be able to go to a gas station and sell any number of permits they have left at a price established by the market, which can be checked at the gas station at any time. Those people who need to buy more permits will be able to do so right at the gas station. It is likely that as available permits dwindle in supply, the amount people will pay for them will go up. That higher price will encourage more people to sell what they have—and use some other means of travel besides their car.

Individuals and organizations that have legitimate need to use more gasoline than the average Canadian, like police forces, sales businesses, or handicapped people, will be able to write off some or all of their permit costs.

In the following year, the government reduces the number of permits again by 5%, and once again distributes them evenly to all Canadian adults. After ten years of small incremental reductions of just 5%, the number of permits issued to Canadians, and therefore the total number of litres of gasoline burned in Canada, will be reduced from 40 billion to 24 billion annually. Because personal cars account for about 40% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, this scheme will reduce Canada’s annual emissions by 16% after ten years.

You decide how much it's worth to you: