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The World Bank said yesterday that 73 national and 11 regional governments and some 1,000 companies will join forces to push for policies setting a price on carbon emissions to encourage a shift to cleaner energy technologies.
The announcement aims to build momentum for a high-profile UN summit on climate change today that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hopes will mobilise governments and the private sector to make “bold commitments” to address climate change.
The World Bank and UN have been strong advocates for policies that shift the responsibility to polluters to pay for carbon emissions.
Big emitters such as China and EU countries joined growing economies and some of the least developed nations to form the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, the World Bank announced, an effort to encourage countries to adopt measures such as carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems to drive a reduction in carbon emissions across the world.
Companies such as airline group IAG and electric utility Électricité de France, are also expected to back the coalition, which Kim said will spur “action across their sectors, supply chains, and with their neighbours and allies.”
Many large companies believe widespread carbon pricing would signal long-term, stable investment rather than uncertain and potentially more costly policies in future.
“Governments representing almost half of the world’s population and 52% of global GDP have thrown their weight behind a price on carbon as a necessary, if insufficient, solution to climate change and a step on the path to low carbon growth,” said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in a statement.
Even so, Mary Robinson, the UN special envoy for climate change, urged caution on carbon pricing, telling business leaders in New York that it can be “potentially unfair on the poorest” by raising food and fuel prices.
“We really need to understand the dimension of it,” said Robinson, a former president of Ireland.
Setting a price for each ton of carbon that emitters produce is meant to encourage companies to adopt cleaner technologies and shift away from using fossil fuels.
Around 40 countries and over 20 states, regions or cities have either set up or are planning to set up emissions trading schemes or carbon taxes. Together, they account for more than 22% of global emissions.
While national governments from Berlin to Beijing have embraced market-based solutions to combat climate change, a polarised US Congress has rejected measures to set a national price on carbon. States such as California and New York have their own carbon initiatives in place.
Using a carbon price sends an economic signal, forcing polluters to decide whether to reduce emissions, curtail their polluting activity, or pay for each ton they emit, and is the “least cost way” for countries to meet their environmental goals, Kim wrote in a recent blog post on the subject.
Protesters march on Wall Street
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Hundreds of protesters marched through New York City’s financial district yesterday and blocked streets near the stock exchange to denounce Wall Street’s role in raising money for businesses that contribute to climate change.
Protesters stopped traffic on Broadway south of the New York Stock Exchange. Occupying about two blocks, some were standing while others sat. Two were arrested after trying to cross a police barricade.
The demonstration, called Flood Wall Street, came on the heels of Sunday’s international day of action that brought some 310,000 people to the streets of New York City in what activists was said was the largest protest ever held on climate change.
Sunday’s turnout was about triple that of the previous biggest, a Copenhagen demonstration staged five years ago.
Kai Sanburn, a 60-year-old nurse and mother of two from Los Angeles, said she had travelled to New York for Sunday’s march and wanted to do more.
“Marching is wonderful but to really change things we really need to change things,” Sanburn said yesterday. “The action here against Wall Street is really expressive of the feeling that corporations and capitalism no longer serve people.”
The group has roots in the Occupy Wall Street movement that started in a downtown Manhattan park in 2011 to protest what it called unfair banking practices that serve the wealthiest 1%, leaving behind 99% of the world’s population.
Flood Wall Street organisers said they hope yesterday’s action will draw a link between economic policies and the environment.
