Westport Joins Over 120 Companies to Call for a Price on Carbon

Westport recently joined over 120 global companies including Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever to call on governments around the world to put a price on carbon. The Carbon Price Communiqué is a historic call for action coordinated by the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Network for Climate Action in association with the World Business Council on Sustainable Development and the International Emissions Trading Association. Bringing together a broad coalition of stakeholders, the Carbon Price Communiqué signals the readiness of leading companies to tackle one of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century. It also underscores the importance of regulatory certainty for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging growth in energy, transport and the built environment.

Launched on November 19th, 2012, the Communiqué is being presented to all Parties at the ongoing UNFCCC COP18 negotiations at Doha. The Carbon Price Communiqué is the sixth Communiqué to be issued by the Corporate Leaders Network for Climate Action, however it is the first to advocate for a specific policy action. The Communiqué argues that “A clear, stable, ambitious and cost effective policy framework is essential to underpin the investment needed to deliver substantial greenhouse gas emissions reductions” and that “putting a clear, transparent and unambiguous price on carbon must be a core policy objective.”

We believe it’s good environmental and public policy to broadly apply carbon pricing to encourage a shift to lower-carbon fuels and drive innovation. Westport’s world-leading natural gas engine technologies help reduce emissions from the transportation sector, and we strongly support policies that lead to reductions in climate changing greenhouse gas emissions. Many jurisdictions around the world have implemented or are contemplating a carbon price and, according to the European Environment Agency, 33 will have a carbon tax as of 2013. Closer to home, the preliminary findings from British Columbia’s four-year-old carbon tax suggest that fossil fuel consumption patterns are indeed changing, and that investment in clean technology has jumped by 50 percent over three years (KPMG, Clean Tech Report Card, 2011). We are pleased to support the Carbon Price Communiqué in its call to raise awareness and advance a carbon pricing policy that is stable, clear, transparent, and ambitious.