Incorporating the cost of greenhouse gas emissions into the price of goods and services could be a powerful driver of decarbonisation. At the start of the year, Lex set out the case for an ambitious carbon pricing target of $100 a tonne by 2030.
That would be a formidable challenge. It is 10 times higher than the 2019 global average. But if anything, the $100 target price already looks like an underestimate. The latest analysis from central banks said a price of more than $160 within a decade would be needed to provide an incentive to an orderly transition towards net zero by 2050.
The price of allowances linked to carbon emissions in the EU Emissions Trading System increased at an unexpectedly fast pace. The price of EU carbon allowances approached €90 a tonne in December, a near-tripling since the start of the year. That was not just the result of the market pricing in future reductions in the supply of allowances. The gas supply crunch has made energy producers more reliant on coal, pushing up carbon prices.