On September 20, 2015, the World Bank released its 2015 State and Trends of Carbon Pricing report (the Report), which shows the number of implemented or planned carbon pricing schemes around the world have almost doubled since 2012, and are now worth about $50 billion.
The Report indicates that about 40 national and 23 city, states and regions around the world are using carbon pricing schemes, like emissions trading systems (ETS) or carbon taxes. This represents about 7 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent, or 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a threefold increase over the past decade.
Based on a review of carbon pricing initiatives around the world (including emissions trading systems and taxes in places like British Columbia, the European Union, Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), the Report reinforces lessons learned to date – in particular, that well-designed carbon pricing schemes are a powerful and flexible tool that can cut emissions and if adequately designed and implemented, they can play a key role in enhancing innovation and smoothing the transition to a low-carbon global economy.
The Report points to a number of examples to demonstrate the shift to carbon pricing instruments worldwide, including:
• Launch of the South Korean ETS in January 2015.
• Approval of a national carbon tax by Chile to start in 2017.
• The European Union ETS is the largest carbon instrument in terms of value, followed by the trading systems in Korea and California.
• Ontario announced in April that it is joining California and Québec’s emissions trading systems.
• The EU and South Korea recently announced plans this week to explore linkage between their emissions trading systems.
• The US and China – the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters – host the two largest national carbon pricing initiatives in terms of volume covered (as driven by initiatives in their states and provinces). In China, the carbon initiatives cover the equivalent of 1 gigaton of CO2e, while in the US, they cover the equivalent of 0.5 gigatons of CO2e.
• China currently has seven pilot carbon markets operating in major cities and provinces, and has plans to launch a national system in 2016.
It was also announced in September 2015 that more than two dozen cities in China and the US are making new pledges to lower emissions.
The Report also considers the issue of “carbon leakage”, whereby carbon pricing leads some industries and lead them to move production to other countries or jurisdictions where emission costs are lower. The Report notes that ex-post analysis of the EU ETS, the biggest cap-and-trade system in place today, shows that so far, carbon leakage has not materialized on any significant scale. The risk of carbon leakage will remain real as long as carbon price signals are strong and differ significantly between jurisdictions. However, this risk tends to affect a limited number of carbon intensive and trade-exposed sectors, which risk can be effectively mitigated through policy design.
The Report also discusses the enormous savings that can be made through cooperation between countries. Compared to domestic action alone, cooperation and linking of carbon pricing instruments across borders could significantly lower the cost of achieving a 2°C stabilization goal, because countries have more flexibility in choosing who undertakes emission reductions, and who pays for them. Based on an analysis of studies made over the years, the Report shows that this cooperation can mobilize resources and transfers between countries and investors, and result in net annual flows of financial resources of up to $400 billion by 2030 and up to $2.2 trillion by 2050.
Finally, the Report says that carbon prices that converge have a positive impact on competitiveness by favouring more efficient and cleaner sectors, leading to a more efficient economy.
The FASTER Principles
To help countries navigate the carbon pricing landscape, the World Bank Group, together with the OECD and with input from the IMF, also released a report on the FASTER Principles, which aims to help governments and businesses develop efficient and cost-effective carbon pricing instruments.
The FASTER principles are: F for fairness; A for alignment of policies and objectives; S for stability and predictability; T for transparency; E for efficiency and cost-effectiveness and R for reliability and environmental integrity.
Climate Change in the Spotlight
The spotlight is now on New York with the upcoming United Nations meeting on the new Sustainable Development Goals, Climate Week New York, and in about two months, global leaders will meet again in Paris for COP 21.
The decisions made in New York and Paris will set the course for development for years to come. But while these are top level, pivotal meetings, actors around the world are not waiting for a global agreement to act. They are already putting a price on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to drive clean investment. This includes the private sector. And we’ve seen companies from the oil and gas industry – calling for widespread carbon pricing. Today, over 400 businesses worldwide are using an internal price on carbon to guide their investments.