19 November 2010
A United Nations body set up after the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit has recommended increased taxes on carbon emissions from air and sea transport with the aim of raising £67 billion ($100 billion) a year to help poorer nations fight global warming. The group, led by the Prime Ministers of Norway and Ethiopia, said carbon emission taxes must be used as a deterrent to producing greenhouse gases and to raise money so that developing nations can play their part in fighting climate change.
The body proposed that CO2 emissions should cost between £12 ($20) and £15 ($25) a tonne, which would be more than double existing emissions costs, made up of a lot of smaller charges. The body also suggested new carbon taxes and auctioning carbon emission allowances, with the aim of raising up to £18 billion ($30 billion) a year.
The group was set up by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, who said the proposals were ‘financially feasible and politically viable’. However, doubts remain about whether the group has any official standing within the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). If it does not, opponents of efforts to charge aviation and shipping could argue that the group’s recommendations cannot be debated as an official proposal at the global climate conference (COP 16) in Cancun, Mexico (29 November – 10 December 2010).