A climate change deal to be agreed in Paris in December will be incapable of a global carbon price agreement, the United Nations’ climate chief, Christiana Figueres, said on Tuesday.
Big multinational companies and investors and most recently oil majors have called for a global carbon price to help spur investments in low-carbon energy.
A global carbon price would help boost an incentive for operators of power plants and factories to switch to cleaner fuels such as gas or to buy more energy-efficient equipment.
When the European Union launched a carbon trading scheme in 2005, there were expectations this would eventually lead to a global carbon scheme by 2020 worth around two trillion dollars.
But the difficulties of bringing together different carbon schemes from countries around the world means the goal of a global carbon price remains elusive.
“Many have said we need a carbon price that would make investment so much easier, but life is much more complex than that,” Figueres told a climate investor event in London.
“I agree it would be more simple … but it’s not quite what we will have,” she said, adding that the world would move towards that in the future.
Figueres said six jurisdictions around the world already had a carbon price or carbon pricing mechanism such as a tax.
“I would argue we already have a strong carbon price signal,” she said.
Countries are due to meet in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 to agree on a global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
This month, the leaders of 10 companies recognised that current greenhouse gas levels were inconsistent with a goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times.
These 10 companies produce 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas.
But they stopped short of outlining goals to cut their own emissions.