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France, Germany Seek Action on CO2 Pricing At G20 Ministers' Parley
- By The Financial District
- Jul 11, 2021
- 2 min read
The finance ministers of France and Germany called for global action to raise carbon prices in an effort to curb harmful greenhouse gases, at a meeting with their G20 counterparts in the Italian city of Venice, Theresa Muensch and Rachel Bossmeyer reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz appealed for global cooperation among the group of major advanced and emerging economies, noting that many countries were already debating action to make carbon emissions more costly.
"We are all pursuing the same goal," he said. Germany is one of several countries to have introduced a carbon price, applying it to transport and heating since the start of the year.
His French counterpart Bruno Le Maire proposed a global minimum carbon price, adding that it made no sense for the European Union (EU) to introduce carbon pricing if other countries don't do so. Otherwise, he warned of so-called carbon leakage, meaning emissions are simply generated elsewhere.
"A fair and efficient CO2 price should be a global CO2 price," Le Maire said, noting that all G20 states had pledged to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Now the goal was to find the means of reaching this goal.
"We need concerted and drastic action for the climate," Le Maire said at the start of the two-day meeting. The aim of carbon pricing is to drive up the cost of fossil fuels, incentivizing the switch to climate-friendly alternatives.
Other issues on the ministers' agenda include ongoing efforts to introduce a minimum global business tax rate. In principle, 131 countries have agreed to guarantee a minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent, as well as ensuring that large corporations pay taxes where they make their sales.
However, EU members Ireland, Hungary, and Estonia are not on board. Scholz said ahead of the meeting he was "very confident" agreement about the tax reform could be reached within the EU.
"Because actually, the thing is that in the past we have achieved all agreements about tax evasion on a global level first and then the EU reproduced it too, also the countries that were skeptical," Scholz said in an interview with broadcaster ARD aired on Friday.
