WASHINGTON: The World Bank said Monday that there is strong support from countries and businesses worldwide for carbon pricing schemes to cut greenhouse emissions.
On the eve of the United Nations Climate Summit, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said 73 countries and nearly two dozen states and cities representing more than half the world's economy had endorsed putting a price on carbon emissions.
In addition, more than 1,000 businesses worldwide, including over 300 institutional investors, had endorsed carbon pricing schemes.
"Today we see real momentum. Governments representing almost half of the world's population and 52 percent of global GDP have thrown their weight behind a price on carbon as a necessary, if insufficient, solution to climate change and a step on the path to low carbon growth," Kim said.
That support "reveals a great commitment and impatience from governments and companies" for action to confront global warming, he said.
The list includes leading economies like China, France, Germany, Indonesia and Russia but notably does not include the world's largest economic power and the World Bank's largest single funder, the United States.
Kim offered no reason why Washington had not signed on, but pointed out that several US states and cities were on the lists, and that President Barack Obama was a supporter.
Also missing were the large US oil companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
"Despite the fact that as a country they haven't signed on, in so many others ways American citizens, American states and the president of United States himself have been very positive about this," Kim said.
He stressed the support of leading businesses around the world, even if they have to pay a price for carbon emissions, because they see warming as a long-term economic threat.
But companies want to be sure that any carbon tax requirements are fair and equal across countries and jurisdictions, he said.
"The science is clear, the economics are compelling" for such schemes, he said.
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