News

IEA: CO2 Price Must be $175 a Ton to Halve the CO2 Emissions by 2050

Publish date: November 5, 2010

According to Nobuo Tanaka, the head of the International Energy Agency, the price of carbon must rise to 175 dollars (124 euros) a metric ton in order to halve global emissions by 2050.

The EU objective is to cut the CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 80-95% in 2050 (on 1990 levels) in order to mitigate climate change. This would be consistent with a global halving of emissions, as suggested by the IEA. Energy efficiency, renewable and CCS are the key solutions to reach this target but they are dependent on the CO2 price, which is currently only 15 euros per tonne, or one eighth of the required price in 2050. This is not high enough to drive investment and to discourage CO2 emissions from industry and electricity producers. More ambitious EU 2020 emission targets would be a first step towards higher prices.

Access the press release here.