A CRAG (or Carbon Rationing Action Group) is a group of people who have decided to act together to reduce their individual and collective carbon footprints. They do this in an annual cycle. First they set themselves an annual emissions target or “carbon ration”. Then they keep track of their emissions over the year by keeping a record of their household energy use and private car and plane travel.  Finally, at the end of the year, they take responsibility for any “carbon debt” (i.e. emissions over and above their ration) that they have built up. All carbon debts are paid into the group’s “carbon fund” at an agreed rate per kilo of CO2 debt. The fund is then distributed as agreed by the members of the group.

The Surrey Green Party CRAG is mainly for SGP members but we decided to welcome non-members in Feb 2008. We include the following emissions: home heating, home electricity, private vehicle use, leisure air travel.  In our first year of operation 2007, we had 10 members. Three exceeded the 4 ton ration and paid a total of £348 to green charities. Most people were under 3 tons, the lowest being a very impressive 730 kg. We decided to keep the same ration and price for 2008 and try and attract more members.  Amongst the factors that explain our low emissions are: most members do not fly, low level of car use, only one single-adult household.

The rules for 2008 are as follows.

Membership

1.  All SGP members may join.  Membership is voluntary.  Persons who are not SGP members may also become members.  See note 1.

Scope

2. The scheme includes carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the following sources:

• Home heating
• Home electricity
• Transport by own car or motorbike
• Air travel.

The scheme does not include public transport or embodied carbon as there is no easy way to calculate these contributions.

3. The scheme is based on emissions per adult person, not households.

Emission Calculations

4.  Members will supply the following information to enable their CO2 emissions to be calculated.

• Number of adults in household.  Use fractions for part occupation eg if an adult is present 6 months of the year, count as 0.5 adults.  Children under 16 do not count.
• Gas and electricity meter readings at 1 Jan 2008 and 2009.
• No reductions or adjustments are allowed for a renewable or green electricity tariff.  See note 3.
• CO2 equiv emissions from air travel.  To obtain this, members will use the air travel calculator on the Climate Care web site, entering the flight start and end locations.  Business flights are excluded.  See note 3.
• Personal car or motorbike mileage, fuel (diesel or petrol), and average mpg.  This requires members to record the odometer readings at 1 Jan 2008 and 2009, and to calculate their average mpg by recording the quantities of fuel and miles travelled over a few months.  If a car is shared, members need to either record the mileage when they are driving, or simply estimate the fraction of the total miles that are attributable to them.  Travel to and from normal place of work is included, but other business mileage is excluded.  Alternatively members may record the volumes of fuel bought over the year

5.  CO2 emissions are calculated using the following factors used by Defra in its carbon calculator

Electricity 0.53 kg per kWh
Gas 0.21 kg per kWh
Petrol 10.5 (2.3) kg per gallon (kg per litre)
Diesel 11.9 (2.6) kg per gallon (kg per litre)

Calculating the Value of Carbon Debts and Credits

6.  Members will agree a target ration for the year.  The ration for 2008 is 4.0 t CO2

7.  Members will agree a value of CO2 for year.  The value for 2008 is £100 per tonne.

8.  At the end of the year, the members will report their consumption figures to the CRAG administrator who will calculate and record their CO2 emissions from the data provided.  Members whose emissions exceed the ration pay for the excess - the proceeds become the carbon fund.  This will be given to a green charity to be selected by the members.

Rules revised 6 Feb 2008 as agreed at SGP meeting 2 Feb 2008

Notes.

1. We will encourage others to form their own CRAGs and offer to help them.

2. No reductions are allowed because unfortunately there is no way of clearly demonstrating the reduction is emissions (if any) that arises from switching to a green tariff.  Despite this we still want to encourage people to select a good green tariff.  The following are recommended by most surveys: Good Energy, Green Energy and Ecotricity.

3. Business flights are excluded because (a) in most cases the employer selects the mode of transport not the employee (b) if the UK were to introduce a national carbon rationing system, companies would be rationed separately from individuals and would have to pay for company travel out of the company ration.

More information

See the Surrey Green Party CRAG pages