Possible caveats

• Special criteria and clear objective rules would be required in order to make possible providing extra allowances for special situations. The most obvious example that comes to mind is that of workers living far from their workplace and not having a suitable transportation alternative. People who would have to spend 3 hours using 3 buses, 2 trolleys and a train should not feel discriminated against for the simple fact of having to commute to a difficult place. Naturally, as a result, this type of commuting should then also be excluded from the calculation of average kilometres per person leading to a lower standard amount of allowances per person. Put simply, in order to guarantee that the system does its job of lowering emissions, extra allowances given to certain groups of people should be ‘diverted’ towards these groups, and not ‘created’ as new allowances for the purpose.

• Parents would also be provided with a certain amount of extra allowances per child to compensate for the probable extra travelling, for example, 300 extra litres per child. Eventually, some governments might wish to decide on the amount of extra allowances taking other issues into account, such as promoting natality. Again, these extra allowances for parents should be ‘diverted’ and not ‘created’ for the purpose.

• I personally would tend to give the same amount of allowances to individuals not owning a car as to everyone else. The extra income would be a prize for their probable lower emissions and act as an incentive towards the use of more public transport and for more sustainable travelling. It would therefore forward the general objectives of the system. Naturally, this is a politically charged issue. Others would argue for a lower allowance, or even no allowance for people without cars.

• People using lower emission transportation should be able to save allowances. This can be done, for instance by weighing fuels by emission. Ex: 1 allowance for two litres of LNG.

• In the same way, when extending the scheme beyond transportation and applying it to homes, ‘green-sourced’ energy should also be excluded. This would automatically support the development of renewable energies without direct subsidies.