On the eve of the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference, leaders from more than 100 businesses, cities, universities and business associations and networks, whose members and partners represent and gather over 60 million companies and farmers with over USD 25 trillion market capitalisation and over USD 120 trillion assets under management in over 100 countries call on governments to ramp up carbon pricing.

In an open letter to the heads of state and government, the signatories of the Call on Carbon initiative call on governments to:

  • back their net zero targets with effective, robust, reliable and fit-for-purpose carbon pricing instruments, consistent with the Paris Agreement, to facilitate a cost-efficient investment path to reach net zero emissions;
  • align their carbon pricing instruments where appropriate to create a stable and predictable investment environment; and
  • finalise the rules for international market mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to support cost-effective mitigation efforts, create a level playing field and minimise carbon leakage while enabling greater ambition.

The signatories come from both global  and national business and across industry sectors and jurisdictions, including leaders of the International Chamber of Commerce representing 45 million companies in over 130 countries, the We Mean Business Coalition which works with businesses and investors with a market cap close to USD 25 trillion, UN PRI whose members have over USD 120 trillion assets under management, Copa-Cogeca, representing 22 million farmers and 22 000 agri-cooperatives and Orgalim, Europe’s Technology Industries comprised of 770,000 companies.

A growing number of the largest economies in the world, representing the majority of global CO2 emissions, have set climate neutrality targets, but the level of investment in low and net zero emissions solutions is still too low. The International Energy Agency warned recently that spending on clean energy must triple to curb climate change. And there are other sectors in which the need for speed is even greater.

We are only one investment cycle away from 2050 and if we do not have a step change for carbon pricing, we will not get the investments required to mitigate climate change on time. We believe the timing is absolutely right. This would make COP26 in Glasgow a true game changer.