Carbon pricing would raise trillions needed to tackle climate crisis, says IMF

Traditionally unpopular carbon taxes could be achieved with regulatory compliance, IMF head tells Cop 28

Diverting the trillions of dollars by which the world subsidises fossil fuel production each year, and putting an implicit price on carbon emissions, would generate the vast amounts of cash needed to tackle the climate crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said.

Governments have been put off explicitly pricing carbon by the potential unpopularity of new carbon taxes, which have become favourite targets of anti-climate politicians and parties around the world, from the US and Australia to Europe and the UK.

When you put a price on carbon, decarbonisation accelerates

Kristalina Georgieva, of the IMF

It is not so easy to identify the carbon content and then to put on an appropriate price

Kristalina Georgieva