* Canada's Trudeau and Germany's Merkel join call for CO2
pricing
* Group wants 25 pct of emissions covered by CO2 pricing by
2020
* Seeks 50 pct of emissions covered within the next decade
LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - A group of world leaders and
international banks on Thursday urged more countries to launch
schemes that put a price on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel were among leaders calling for faster action on
carbon pricing, along with the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, ahead of Friday's New York signing ceremony for
the climate deal agreed in Paris last December.
Some 40 nations and more than 23 cities, states and regions
already have a price on CO2 emissions covering about 12 percent
of global emissions, but the group called on fellow world
leaders to increase coverage to 25 percent of global emissions
in the next four years and 50 percent within the next
decade.
"To deliver on the promises of the historic Paris climate
agreement, a price on carbon pollution will be essential to help
cut emissions and drive investments into innovation and cleaner
technologies," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said in
the group's joint statement.
The landmark Paris Agreement was a commitment by nearly 200
countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 with the aim
of limiting the rise in the global average temperature to less
than 2 degrees Celsius.
The role of carbon pricing in efforts to curb rising
emissions blamed for global warming gained prominence last year
after several multinational companies, including oil majors,
said it is needed to spur investment in low-carbon energy.
"We now need to make carbon pricing levels consistent with
the Paris Agreement objective, to broaden the scope of covered
emissions and to initiate the convergence of carbon pricing
schemes," French President Francois Hollande said in the
statement.
The President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, Mexican President
Enrique Pena Nieto, Ethiopia Prime Minister Hailemariam
Dessalegn, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., Rio de
Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes and The Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Secretary-General Angel
Gurria were also among the 11-strong group behind Thursday's
statement.
About 60 world leaders will attend Friday's ceremony in New
York to open the period for signatures on the Paris Agreement,
which is designed to stave off the worst effects of global
warming, such as drought, desertification and rising sea levels.
Europe's top oil firms jointly call for carbon pricing
Global schemes to price CO2 emissions worth almost $50 bln -
World Bank
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