According to the findings of an OECD report published Tuesday 18 September, too few governments of OECD and G20 countries are pricing carbon sufficiently high to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Country by country, the report establishes the existing gap between the current carbon price and the real climate costs calculated on the basis of €30 per tonne of CO2. This was the European Commission’s starting assumption when it was proposed that the emissions trading system (ETS) should be set in place.
This gap was 76.5% in 2018, compared with the 83% carbon gap reported in 2012 and the 79.5% gap in 2015, the year when the Paris Agreement was signed. This reduction, however, is not enough. It must be speeded up, failing which it will be necessary to wait until 2095 for carbon prices to correspond to the real cost, says the OECD.
In 2015, Australia was at 78.9%, Japan 68.9%, Canada 64.8%, Germany 52.5%, Italy 46.3%, the United Kingdom 42.2%, France 40.9% and Switzerland 26.6%.
According to the report, the effective carbon rate is the sum of three specific taxes on fossil fuels, carbon taxes and CO2 price quotas. New initiatives such as the Chinese ETS and renewed efforts by Canada and France to establish a carbon price could significantly reduce these gaps. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)