Carbon Taxes 'Gaining Traction,' WB Says

The World Bank has said in a new report, Carbon Pricing Watch 2015, that carbon tax systems currently in place around the world are generating global revenues of around USD14bn.

In the past year and a half, Portugal and Mexico implemented new carbon taxes, South Korea started one of the world's largest emissions trading systems, and California and Quebec linked their cap-and-trade systems, which Ontario plans to join.

China, meanwhile, has been learning from its seven local carbon markets (the oldest, in Shenzen, is about to wrap up its second year), and the entire country, a leading emitter of greenhouse gases, plans to launch a national emissions trading system as early as 2016. Chile also advanced carbon pricing, approving a carbon tax to start in 2018.

These are among about 40 countries and more than 20 cities, states, and provinces now using or planning to use a price on carbon to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. Altogether, the initiatives in operation today are valued at almost USD50bn, according to the World Bank's report.

"Carbon pricing is clearly gaining traction. In the last year, we've seen Chile and Mexico join the ranks of countries, cities and states putting a price on carbon. So it's no longer a matter of if or when to price carbon," said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change. 

"With the focus now on action in the run-up to the Paris climate summit in December, business and Governments have walked across the battle lines and are now working together on how and how fast to get prices right. There is a growing sense of inevitability to put a price on carbon."