Leaders Unite In Calling for a price on carbon

For the first time, Heads of State, city and municipal leaders have come together with the support of leading companies to urge countries and companies around the world to put a price on carbon pollution. 

These global leaders have taken steps to price carbon, through emissions trading programs, carbon taxes and fees, and other pricing mechanisms, that provide incentives to invest in a greener economy.

Strong public policy gives the private sector the certainty and predictability to make the necessary long-term investments in climate smart development and prevent catastrophic impacts from climate change.

Convened by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and the International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde, the Carbon Pricing Panel is calling on their peers to follow their lead and put a price on carbon. The call aims to spur further, faster action towards the necessary low carbon, productive, competitive economy of the future. They are joined in this effort by OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria.

Members of the Carbon Pricing Panel include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, French President François Hollande, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Governor Jerry Brown of California, and Mayor Eduardo Paes of Rio de Janeiro.

The panel provides political momentum to complement the voices of government and industry leaders in the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition – an action based platform set up on the back of support for carbon pricing from 74 countries and 1,000 companies at the United Nations Climate Summit in September 2014.

Private sector support comes from US Institutional Investor Calpers, Engie of France, Mahindra Group of India, and Netherlands based Royal DSM who, with other leading businesses, work to link business needs with public policies through the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition.

On the eve of the signing ceremony in New York of the Paris COP21 Agreement, the Panel challenged the world to:

• Expand carbon pricing to cover 25 percent of global emissions by 2020 – double the current level – and

• Achieve 50 percent coverage within the next decade.

Carbon pricing Panel Members:

Private sector supporters