APLA ’17: Petrochemicals should embrace carbon pricing – World Bank

RIO DE JANEIRO (ICIS)–A World Bank official on Tuesday called on the petrochemicals industry to embrace carbon pricing as a way to fight climate change.

Global emissions covered by carbon pricing initiatives quadrupled in the past decade, said Alexandre Kossoy, a senior financial specialist in the climate change and policy group of the World Bank.

Kossoy spoke at the 37th Latin America Petrochemical Association (APLA) meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

He said revenues from carbon taxes globally were around $20bn in 2015 and 2016, and may reach $100bn in 2020, adding that this is the amount that could be collected by local governments worldwide.

Carbon pricing is no longer only seen as an environmental tool, but as a fiscal instrument to generate income that could replace other types of taxation, he said.

A representative from Brazil’s chemical association Abiquim, who spoke at the same event, said the group supports a low carbon economy, but added that any mechanism in Brazil that involved taxation should have “tax neutrality”.

The group is calling on the Brazilian government to establish a timeline and strategy on the theme that could be implemented in 2020.

However, Abiquim said any carbon market system in Brazil should be appropriate to the reality of the Brazilian economy and one that was integrated with policies in other countries.

The trade group added that the petrochemicals industry in Brazil cut emissions by 29% between 2006 and 2015 and accounts for only 5% of carbon emissions in the country.

The APLA meeting runs in Rio de Janeiro on 11-14 November.

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