Building climate cooperation: The critical role for international carbon price floors

The Paris Agreement is galvanizing countries to pledge net zero greenhouse gas emissions targets for the middle of the 21^st century, but countries also need to commit to reducing emissions ambitiously over the next decade. This requires rapidly scaling up international cooperation. A new IMF Staff Climate Note argues that an international carbon price floor (ICPF) agreement can enable greater near-term reductions by building confidence that all participating countries are undertaking comparable mitigation efforts. An ICPF could involve a small number of major emitting countries that all agree on a minimum carbon price that each would implement. The report describes how such an agreement can be pragmatic, equitable, and accommodate a range of carbon pricing approaches.

On Friday, June 18, the Center on Regulation and Markets at Brookings and the International Monetary Fund convened an event to discuss an ICPF’s rationale, policy design, potential emissions performance, and prospects for implementation.

Viewers submitted questions via email to [email protected] or via Twitter using #CarbonPrice. View the report here.