STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Revenues from emissions trading schemes and carbon taxes rose by 60 percent in 2015
- 13 percent of greenhouse gas emissions now covered by carbon pricing initiatives
- Charging for emissions seen as important way for countries to deliver on the promises they made last December at the COP21 in Paris
The 2015 year highlighted the growing momentum for countries to voluntarily embrace putting a price on carbon pollution, as a means of cutting emissions.
The report, Carbon Pricing Watch 2016, shows four new carbon pricing initiatives – in the Republic of Korea, Portugal, Canada’s British Columbia province, and Australia – were launched, or have been in the works, since 2015.
The year also saw China announce plans to launch a national emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2017. Early estimates in the Carbon Pricing Watch 2016 suggest that if China’s national market is implemented, the global value of carbon pricing initiatives could potentially double to US$100b.
And more than 90 countries included proposals for carbon pricing initiatives in their national plans, the INDCs, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, prepared for the historic Paris climate change agreement in December 2015. In total, they account for 61 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
John Roome
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