Climate-action logic is prevailing.
Financial Times’ economy columnist Martin Wolf’s opinion piece Wednesday calling for politicians to do a better sales job to encourage voters to support more ambitious climate action hits the right notes.
He said this as part of his opinion:
How to accelerate climate action
This idea to replace the inflated cost of fossil-fuels with higher carbon prices will work.
That’s because this swap will more easily find support from global citizens who have seen first hand why the world needs to move beyond dirty fuels controlled by unpredictable regimes, like Russia.
The European Union has show clear carbon pricing can work effectively. I point out one of the charts cited by Wolf, which shows steady and stable increases in renewable capacities in recent years as the region’s prices neared the equivalent of $100 / ton. Europe has many other supportive policies, true.
Swapping a portion of the natural gas rise for higher carbon prices is an idea supported by the IMF, among others, (including CarrZee).
European natural gas prices have dropped by about two thirds since late August, when they peaked. It’s striking that utilities are not easing their prices — perhaps waiting for that politician sales job called for by Wolf.