New York Times - Coral Davenport
 |
| Ángel Franco/The New York Times |
The
World Bank and
International Monetary Fund
are pressing governments to impose a price tag on planet-warming carbon
dioxide emissions, using economic leverage and technical assistance
that institutions like the United Nations cannot muster.
The campaign by two of the largest international lenders comes as world leaders have begun to sign the Paris agreement on
climate change,
the United Nations accord that is supposed to commit nearly every
country to take action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The
document opened for signatures on Friday and will remain open for a
year.
But
the leaders of the World Bank, the I.M.F. and other major global
institutions say cutting emissions enough to stave off the worst effects
of climate change will not be possible unless all fossil fuel polluters
are forced to pay for the carbon dioxide they emit.
"There
is now an overwhelmingly obvious scientific consensus that the more
carbon pollution we put into the air the more impact it has on warming
the massive melting of the Arctic, the cycles of droughts and flooding,
the die-offs of coral reefs," the World Bank's president, Jim Yong Kim,
said in an interview. "And to our economists, who have been studying
this for quite some time, there is an equally obvious consensus that
putting a price on carbon pollution is by far the most powerful and
efficient way to reduce emissions."
He added, "We strongly urge people to prepare for the carbon pricing that is to come."
The
World Bank's central mission is to alleviate global poverty, and in a
twist on that mission, bank leaders have identified climate change as a
key driver of poverty. A
World Bank report last year concluded that climate change could beggar 100 million more people by 2030.
"We cannot poison the planet and thrive," Mr. Kim said at the
adoption of the Paris agreement in December.
To
press that case, the bank has created a Carbon Finance Unit to give
financial and technical assistance to countries that are creating a
system to put a price on carbon. This is usually set up as a tax on
fossil fuels like coal and oil or as a "
cap-and-trade"
system that sets limits on overall carbon emissions, then allows
companies to buy and sell emission allotments sold by the government.
The
bank is already working with 18 countries with emerging economies,
including China, which has received an $8 million grant to develop what
is expected to be the world's largest cap-and-trade program. South
Africa and Chile have received similar grants, and World Bank officials
are meeting with the governments of
Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Panama to help them create carbon pricing systems.
Under
the Paris agreement, all countries submitted plans to reduce their
carbon emissions, and they are required to update and strengthen those
plans over the coming years. Already, about 90 countries have included
some form of carbon pricing in their plans. The World Bank has reviewed
those United Nations plans, hoping eventually to link the systems into a
global carbon trading market.
"We've
now got carbon pricing on the radar screen in a way it hasn't been
before," said John Roome, the senior director for climate change
programs at the World Bank Group. "We're moving from why to how."
The
I.M.F., often seen as the world's lender of last resort, is also
consulting and advising countries on how best to introduce carbon
pricing, in part as a way for struggling nations to raise more revenue.
"We
can't make a loan conditional on carbon pricing, but for a country
facing a large deficit, we could recommend that they use carbon pricing
as a way to simultaneously meet their pledges in Paris and close their
deficit," said Ian Parry, principal environmental fiscal policy expert
at the I.M.F.
Any
policy that drives up the cost of fossil fuels can be expected to
generate intense opposition. In the United States, voters — especially
in the depleted middle class — are leery of the economic pain, and
political groups funded by the billionaire brothers Charles G. and David
H. Koch stand in the way.
"It's
frustrating to watch unelected bureaucrats like the World Bank and
other institutions try to leverage their power to force elected leaders
to take actions that harm their citizens," said Tim Phillips, the
president of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-backed advocacy group.
The
point of a carbon price is to make fossil fuels more expensive,
charging for the toll they take on the environment and guiding markets
toward cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar.
About
40 countries, including the 28 members of the European Union, along
with 23 cities, states and regions around the world, have introduced
carbon pricing policies. They cover about 12 percent of the world's
carbon pollution.
Last
week, the World Bank, the I.M.F., the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, and the heads of state of Canada, Chile,
Ethiopia, France, Germany and Mexico
released a statement
calling for more carbon pricing. Their goal is to reach enough
countries to cover 25 percent of the world's carbon emissions by 2020
and 50 percent of emissions by 2030.
"Our
government has heard loud and clear that Canadians care about standing
up for our environment and our livelihoods," Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau of Canada said.
Four
of Canada's 13 provinces and territories already have some form of
carbon pricing, and Mr. Trudeau hopes to enact a national plan.
Christine
Lagarde, the managing director of the I.M.F., called carbon pricing the
"crown jewel" of efforts to mitigate climate change.
Absent
from the statement was President Obama, whose own cap-and-trade bill
died in the Senate early in his first administration, when the Democrats
controlled the chamber. The bill had passed the House, but many of its
Democratic supporters were voted out of office in the Republican
avalanche of 2010.
Among
the 2016 presidential candidates, only Senator Bernie Sanders of
Vermont has publicly embraced carbon pricing, calling for a national
tax. Hillary Clinton backs the Paris agreement and has pledged to
strengthen Mr. Obama's climate change policies, but she has stopped
short of calling for a carbon price. Both Donald J. Trump and Senator
Ted Cruz of Texas, who question the established science of human-caused
climate change, have vowed to withdraw the United States from the Paris
accord.
Still,
carbon pricing is expanding at the state level. California and nine
Northeast states have introduced cap-and-trade systems. The Oregon
Legislature is considering its own trading regime, and a ballot
initiative to create a carbon tax is expected to be on the Washington
State ballot in November.
"We
started the momentum on carbon pricing, and we hope to see it spread
across the global economy," said Ségolène Royal, the French ecology
minister, who helped negotiate the Paris agreement.
Mr. Kim, the World Bank president, acknowledged that carbon pricing would come with burdens including higher energy costs.
"These
policy reforms may be difficult," he said. "And it is difficult,
politically. But we are an organization that is completely committed."
Links
