I’m sitting in the 11th annual “Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading” at the International Energy Agency in Paris. 100 very smart people from all over the world, sitting around a huge oval table in a slightly-too-warm, wood-paneled conference room across the road from the Eiffel Tower (yes, I’m looking at it now, so excitingly close!).
I've been privileged to be invited by the co-hosting International Emissions Trading Association. I’ve just finished my 10 minute (ok, it went to 15) pitch about issues involved in mobilizing bond markets to finance climate change solutions. Quite a few questions; encouraging (or maybe just polite).
I’m the oddball presenter in that climate bonds have only a loose relationship to carbon markets, and to be frank I’m a bit of an ignoramus about them. Most of the day has, as the seminar title would suggest, been about developments in those carbon markets.
It’s Chatham House rules, so I can’t really give details, but I’m struck by two things:
- The extent that, after years of carbon market development, things are still being worked out. We’ve got a long way to go and a lot fo work before this is a mature market.
- The depressed air of the carbon markets narrative in the face of stalled UNFCCC negotiations.
While bringing the cost of carbon pollution into energy and other areas is vital, it’s proving a very long game and global emissions are still rising, and will continue to do so for too many years.
We need to be playing a very robust short game of building green energy infrastructure and closing down brown assets by fiat, well before carbon prices have a significant impact.
The Eiffel Tower is still there.
