Opening remarks by Sharon Dijksma, Minister for the Environment, at the High Level Dialogue on Carbon Pricing: ‘Doubling the Wave’, Zurich
‘Talk about carbon pricing always reminds me of one of my favorite songs by Beyoncé.
The refrain goes: ‘If you liked it, you should have put a ring on it’.
As we all seem to like and support the idea of carbon pricing, my message today is: If you value it, put a price on it!’. Zo begon staatssecretaris Sharon Dijksma haar toespraak op de High Level Dialogue in Zürich over carbon pricing, 16 januari 2017.
De bewindsvrouw benadrukte het belang van carbon pricing. Niet alleen voor het klimaat, maar ook voor innovatie en investeringszekerheid voor bedrijven. Dat is ook de reden dat Dijksma het initiatief heeft genomen voor deze ‘high level dialogue’ en heeft het kabinet een extra 1.9 miljoen euro beschikbaar gesteld voor initiatieven van de Wereldbank voor het implementeren van carbon pricing in Latijns Amerika en Azië.
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Talk about carbon pricing always reminds me of one of my favorite songs by Beyoncé.
The refrain goes: ‘If you liked it, you should have put a ring on it’.
As we all seem to like and support the idea of carbon pricing, my message today is: If you value it, put a price on it!
In other words: I believe we need carbon pricing if we’re to achieve our climate change ambitions.
That’s my main message today.
I also want to talk about the role my country seeks to play in implementing carbon pricing.
Last year the Netherlands joined the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition.
Because we acknowledge the value of political dialogue in driving and facilitating the implementation of carbon pricing. One of the main outcomes so far is the political ambition to double the volume of emissions covered by a carbon pricing system.
I’m glad to see you all here today.
Because we all need to make decisions that will take carbon pricing to the next level.
And we need to do this together – governments, business and the financial sector.
Doubling the volume of emissions covered by a carbon pricing system will help drive action by governments and business. Those actions will in turn help deliver on the political ambition. So all our actions around the globe will generate a carbon pricing wave.
The Coalition’s chair, Feike Sijbesma, has called carbon pricing an inevitable opportunity.
This year we must speed up actual implementation.
Only then will we be able to ‘double the wave’.
While everyone more or less ‘gets’ carbon pricing, introducing it isn’t always easy.
Employers, businesses and ordinary people tend to be concerned about its potential impact on their livelihoods, their jobs, their businesses.
So we need to design the systems wisely, to ensure a fair transition.
Linking up the various carbon pricing systems will help us achieve our goals cost-effectively and establish a level playing field.
The systems used in the Americas have been designed with a view to linking them up in the future.
I hope that, in the future, carbon markets in China, Asia and Europe will demonstrate similar ambition and become geared towards linking up.
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Carbon pricing is more than a tool for achieving our climate goals.
It also offers innovation and investment security.
That is a crucial point.
So I welcome the work done by the Carbon Disclosure Project with CEOs to get clarity on setting effective long-term price signals.
This is a discussion we need to have.
I see climate neutrality as the key objective of the Paris agreement.
It’s a goal that includes climate-compatible investment.
Long-term, meaningful price signals would serve as signposts to that goal.
It’s encouraging that there’s growing support for carbon disclosure and pricing in the financial sector and investment community.
Clearly, they see unchecked climate change as a financial stability risk.
Carbon pricing will inevitably become a factor in investment decisions.
More and more businesses are applying an internal carbon price.
Will they also support external carbon pricing?
And the setting up of new systems that will drive investment, in all sectors, towards climate-neutral options?
Now that there’s growing recognition for the value of carbon pricing, we can speed up implementation.
That’s why I’ve taken the initiative for this dialogue.
I hope we’ll establish the next steps for carbon pricing at the end of this meeting.
And then take them forward.
I’d like to thank Feike for offering to present our key findings at the World Economic Forum.
The year has only just begun.
To speed up global implementation of carbon pricing, I’ve made an extra 1.9 million euros available for the World Bank’s work on implementing carbon pricing in Latin America, Asia and for the discussion with the financial sector and investors.
Many countries, regions and businesses around the world are prepared to get started with carbon pricing.
It’s great that so many have expressed their intention to put ‘a ring on it’.
But it’s only by exchanging vows that we truly pledge commitment.
So I hope we’ll see many actors committing to carbon pricing. And more importantly: following up on their vows.
Thank you.