Business lobby calls for global carbon price
November 19, 2012
By Argus Media
November 19 2012, London, UK — A clear and transparent global CO2 price is necessary to encourage the low-carbon investments needed to deliver substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cuts, according to an international business lobby.
Over 100 companies, including Shell, Unilever, Cathay Pacific, EDF Energy, Braskem, Statoil, Swiss Re, Ricoh and Skanska, endorsed this message as part of a Carbon Price Communique presented to the European Commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, on 16 November.
“A clear, stable, ambitious and cost-effective policy framework is essential to underpin the investment needed to deliver substantial GHG emissions reductions. Putting a clear, transparent and unambiguous price on carbon must be a core policy objective,” the declaration said.
The businesses believe a market-driven carbon price would offer regulatory certainty and create a level playing field to drive low-carbon investment and innovation. “A price on CO2 can open the door to increased ambition,” the communique said.
“Emissions trading schemes have huge potential to deliver real change. Putting a price on CO2 emissions should mean that the lowest-cost CO2 emission reduction measures are implemented first. Governments at the UN climate conference should focus on carbon pricing as a key policy objective,” Shell UK chairman Graham van't Hoff said.
Existing schemes show that without sufficient ambition, the CO2 price signal will not effectively drive investment or raise significant funds, the communique said. “CO2 pricing is not a silver bullet, but in combination with other locally appropriate policies, the scope for change is enormous,” it added.
The communique, co-ordinated by The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, with contributions from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the International Emissions Trading Association (Ieta), was issued a week before the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (Cop 18) talks start in Doha, Qatar.
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