Global carbon pricing off menu at Paris climate talks

Climate experts say the need to agree on a global carbon price to cut pollution and aid clean technologies is a no-brainer, and yet the topic will have no place at the upcoming Paris climate talks.

World leaders, captains of industry, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) had all expressed hope that the Paris meeting would welcome the idea.

Paris will host beginning next week a gathering of nearly 140 world leaders to spearhead a climate pact tasked with keeping Earth liveable for humanity.

But despite a myriad carbon pricing schemes having been experimented with across the world and plenty of big-name support behind the idea, the Paris gathering will not address putting a global price on pollution.

The idea of a setting a price for the cost of carbon is to encourage polluters to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they emit by making them pay the bill and focus on the need to develop and invest in green technology.

Frederic Dinguirard, from The Shift Project think-tank, wants to see "the creation of a 'signal-price' which triggers a decision to invest long-term, as these are the investments which are necessary to make the transition to a low carbon society".

The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, an independent initiative on how the global economy can meet green challenges that is co-chaired by Mexican former president Felipe Calderon and economist Nicholas Stern, recommends that "governments introduce a strong, predictable and rising carbon price."

The body says carbon pricing is "a particularly efficient way to advance climate and fiscal goals" as a means of "helping to guide consumption choices and investments towards low-carbon and away from carbon-intensive activities. It also sees the recent fall in oil prices as "an opportunity to advance carbon pricing and fossil fuel subsidy reform."

Twenty managers' organisations from around the world, including Business Europe, recently wrote to UN climate chief Christiana Figueres stressing the importance of a carbon market being created as part of accords stemming from the Paris conference.

"The development of a global carbon market will help stimulate investments in innovative technologies, installations and products to be made in locations where they deliver the greatest possible climate benefits at the lowest economic cost," wrote Business Europe, which urged "the setting of a global level playing field to ensure a fair comparison."

But despite their efforts, the issue will not feature in Cop 21 talks, to the chagrin of Brice Lalonde, UN special advisor and a former French environment minister.

"(This) illustrates perfectly the rather abstract side of the negotiations and the world inhabited by diplomats as compared to the world's economic reality," says Lalonde.

To date, some 40 nations and 23 cities have already introduced or scheduled the introduction of carbon pricing, covering around 12 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to World Bank figures.