TY - JOUR
T1 - Saving Liberalism through Meaningful Choices. Restating the Case for an Individual Carbon Card
AU - Sconfienza, Umberto Mario
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for her/his careful reading of the manuscript and the many insightful comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to Dr. Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn for comments and suggestions. This paper also benefited from the inputs of the participants in the Legal Theory seminar at the Tilburg University and the feedback from the participants in the Polycentric Governance team meeting at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research of the University of Duisburg-Essen. The article has been conceived during my fellowship at the Cluster of Excellence ?The Formation of Normative Orders? and finished during my fellowship at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021/11/2
Y1 - 2021/11/2
N2 - Contrary to the narrative of sustainability, the article departs from the position that there is a tension between environmental regulation and liberalism as we commonly understand it. The article argues that this tension emerges because effectively addressing climate change will require to alter profoundly the way we live. The article analyses this tension in terms of two explanans: first, there are physical limits to the actions people can perform without endangering the environment; second, consumption has become a language with which is possible to express one’s identity and, it will be argued, cannot be easily regulated. The article advances the argument that the introduction of a carbon card policy could ease this tension: it allows a limit to be placed on individual polluting activities while safeguarding a realm of choice over the goods and services that people want to acquire, thus allowing them to retain the social meaning of consumption. Finally, the article argues that a carbon card policy could also have other ‘positive externalities.’.
AB - Contrary to the narrative of sustainability, the article departs from the position that there is a tension between environmental regulation and liberalism as we commonly understand it. The article argues that this tension emerges because effectively addressing climate change will require to alter profoundly the way we live. The article analyses this tension in terms of two explanans: first, there are physical limits to the actions people can perform without endangering the environment; second, consumption has become a language with which is possible to express one’s identity and, it will be argued, cannot be easily regulated. The article advances the argument that the introduction of a carbon card policy could ease this tension: it allows a limit to be placed on individual polluting activities while safeguarding a realm of choice over the goods and services that people want to acquire, thus allowing them to retain the social meaning of consumption. Finally, the article argues that a carbon card policy could also have other ‘positive externalities.’.
KW - Liberalism
KW - environment
KW - carbon card
KW - PCT
KW - public/private distinction
UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2021.1890705
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/faee7648-80d6-3d41-aeee-3b850d9af1f0/
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101093499&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13563467.2021.1890705
DO - 10.1080/13563467.2021.1890705
M3 - Article
SN - 1356-3467
VL - 26
SP - 1048
EP - 1061
JO - New Political Economy
JF - New Political Economy
IS - 6
ER -