‘CO2-prijs moet prioriteit worden voor Parijs’

30 september 2015 – Bij de klimaatonderhandelingen in Parijs (december, COP21) moet een internationale prijs voor CO2-uitstoot topprioriteit krijgen. Dat zegt Charlotte Wolff-Bye, vice-president bij het Noorse Statoil. 

Statoil levert fossiele energie en werkt al sinds 1991 met het fenomeen CO2-prijs en daar ging wat Wolff-Bye betreft een gezonde prikkel van uit. Ze sprak daarover met Edie (duurzaamheidsmedia en -conferenties).

Uit het bericht van Edie
‘(…) Wolff-Bye said a carbon price had forced Statoil to operate at a lower carbon intensity of 9kg of CO2/barrel of oil equivalent on the Norwegian continental shelf, against a world average of 17kg. She said: “You need incentives to change how you produce energy and the ‘polluter-pays’ principle is the best way to do that.
“We are not representatives in the Paris process but a price on carbon would be the most efficient way of driving investment into low carbon technologies in our view.
“There needs to be other things of course – such as investment into R&D and innovation – but a price on carbon has worked for us and that’s why we are strong proponent for it.
“The market will always sort itself out.”
There are already a variety of regional carbon markets, including schemes in California and Alberta, as well as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. China is also set to introduce a carbon price by 2017, proving that a global scheme is not beyond the realms of possibility, according to Wolff-Bye.
However, she also pointed out that the problem of climate change was too great for one policy, industry or company to tackle alone.
“It’s a mammoth, colossal problem that we face and it will touch every industry,” she added.
The threat of global warming is the driving force behind the “hundreds of collaborations” that Statoil has recently developed with Governments, NGO’s and other corporations, in a bid to green its operations. (…)
“No company can do it alone. “We need all hands on deck to innovate, as we don’t have a lot of time.” (…)’

Edie organiseert op 19 november in Londen een ‘Sustainability Leaders Forum’ waar Charlotte Wolff-Bye ook zal spreken.

Bronnen
Edie, 29 september 2015: Statoil: Carbon price should be Paris priority
Edie-conferentie, 19 november 2015: Sustainability Leaders Forum
Foto: Statoil. Boorplatform bij Noorwegen