Finance & economics | Green light

How carbon prices are taking over the world

A quarter of global emissions are now covered, and the share is rising fast

A lump of coal penned-in by barcodes.
Image: Matt Chase

If global warming is to be limited, the world must forget fossil fuels as fast as possible—that much almost everyone agrees upon. How to do so is the complicated part. Economists have long favoured putting a price on carbon, a mechanism Europe introduced in 2005. Doing so allows the market to identify the cheapest unit of greenhouse gas to cut, and thus society to fight climate change at the lowest cost. Others, including many American politicians, worry that such schemes will provoke a backlash by raising consumer costs. Under President Joe Biden, America is instead doling out hundreds of billions of dollars to turn supply chains green.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Green light”

From the October 7th 2023 edition

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