Through its new initiative, the World Bank wants to advance the development and implementation of effective carbon pricing systems worldwide. Germany’s environment minister Barbara Hendricks accepted the World Bank’s invitation for Germany to join the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition as a government partner.
Hendricks commented: "We must steer investment towards climate-friendly technologies worldwide if we want to protect our climate. The most efficient way to do this is to use market-based instruments: we must put a price on carbon, if possible, at a global level. I am confident that the World Bank’s new leadership coalition will be successful in spreading this winning concept."
Today, the coalition comprises around 50 members from the private sector and more than ten government partners. The goal is to enlist another twenty governments by the first annual assembly in October 2015 to send a positive impulse for the development of the global carbon market before the UN climate summit in Paris.
The initiative builds on the "Putting a Price on Carbon" declaration presented by the World Bank at the UN climate summit in New York in September 2014. 74 countries – including Germany –, 23 subnational governments and more than 1000 companies signed the declaration.
Inspired by this broad political support, by launching the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition the World Bank now wants to bring together governments, the private sector and civil society to expand the use of carbon pricing. Part of the coalition’s role is to develop a set of principles to help guide best practices for carbon pricing and to facilitate the exchange between governments and the private sector. Germany will take an active part in this work.