China and Europe Form Carbon Alliance as US Bets on Fossil Fuels
(Bloomberg) -- China and the European Union have joined forces in a bid to create a global alliance on carbon pricing, putting them at odds with the Trump administration’s push to invest more in fossil fuels.
The coalition on compliance carbon pricing — chaired by the EU, China and Brazil, which championed the idea at the COP30 climate summit in November — was launched in the Italian city of Florence on Thursday. Environmentalists and economists have long advocated carbon pricing as a tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling global warming.
The initiative comes as the US rolls back climate policies and prioritizes fossil fuel expansion. President Donald Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement, while seeking to stymie the nascent offshore wind industry. Last October, his administration blocked the adoption of a landmark charge on shipping industry emissions, calling them a “global carbon tax” on Americans.
The coalition aims to more closely harmonize carbon pricing practices across the world.
We need “to make sure that these emissions trading systems talk to each other so that it becomes much easier for trading these carbon credits and that also companies are facilitated in working in different jurisdictions,” said Kurt Vandenberghe, director general for climate at the European Commission.
The new coalition is also set to include the UK, Canada, France, Turkey, New Zealand and Germany, while sub-national jurisdictions, such as California and Quebec, can join as observers.
“We still believe that in the US, lots of local governments, states, companies and organizations are committed to efforts to adjust climate change and we would like to work together with them,” said Li Gao, China’s deputy minister of ecology and environment. “This coalition is very important.”
China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, pledged last year to cut emissions by 7–10% from peak levels by 2035 and plans a sixfold expansion of cumulative solar and wind capacity. Its carbon market is slated to transition from an intensity-based system to an absolute cap and expand coverage to sectors including petrochemicals and aviation.
The EU is home to the world’s most stringent emissions market covering more than 10,000 facilities in sectors from steel to cement and paper. It’s also implemented a carbon border levy on imports of certain products. Brazil is expected to fully launch a national carbon market early next decade.
The coalition will help build trust in carbon markets and promote innovation and investment, according to Cristina Froes de Borja Reis, Brazil’s extraordinary secretary for the carbon market.
It will work to make measuring and reporting emissions more transparent, but also aims to help countries access a United Nations-supervised carbon credits market, created under Article 6 of the landmark Paris Agreement.
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