Why £25 for one tonne?

It may have come to your attention that the price of carbon has fallen recently and is trading at well below £25 a tonne.

Recent sandbag blogs and a comment piece in the Guardian provide some background to the issue. We've come up with some policy suggestions for stopping the decline and will be lobbying on those points, but we also felt we ought to explain to our members and prospective members why we haven't reduced our membership fees in line with the price of carbon.

The first thing to note is that we are a not-for-profit campaigning organisation. This means that any surplus, if and when we purchase permits at lower price, is ploughed back into campaign. In that sense the fact the price is falling means we have more resources to fight for tougher caps and to persuade companies to cancel.

The other reason we're sticking at £25 is that this is closer to what we believe the price of carbon should be. It is also the value the UK government currently believes to be the 'social cost of carbon' ie. the cost of the damage caused by each tonne of emissions. That said, we're very open to feedback about this issue and would welcome your views, so if you feel inclined please drop me a line at bryony@sandbag.org.uk