Why carbon pricing leads to clean energy innovation

​​The fundamental inequality that exists between emitters of carbon and the victims of its devastating byproduct requires global cooperation and intervention beyond our willingness to act thus far. Today, we have the necessary technology, ingenuity and global monetary tools to incentivize a shift to cleaner energy.

Placing a price on carbon enhances the competitive position of renewable energy technologies, such as utility-scale solar, relative to fossil energy, thus encouraging migration away from high-carbon fuels. It is an important step, and it can be supported with other initiatives to ensure accountability.

In the private sector, transparency regarding carbon emissions is essential. With the advent of the Internet and the plethora of information available today, it is not only possible, but imperative that emitters of carbon are held accountable in a public forum.

This can be done in a responsible manner by requiring an annual audit of companies’ carbon emissions to be conducted by their accounting firm and insurance provider.

Through the resulting sustainability index, companies’ year-over-year improvement would be publically documented online. This sharing of information would allow consumers and businesspeople to make informed decisions regarding which companies they give their business to and the corporate sustainability of the businesses they support.

Sustainable and low-carbon energy technologies play a critical role in the energy revolution that is necessary to change our current path. The vast solar energy generated by rapidly deployed utility-scale solar PV projects not only mitigates millions of tonnes of carbon emissions, but also provides the badly needed electric energy that is vitally important in the promotion of economic development and job creation.

As a business leader, SkyPower is actively working to accelerate action against climate change through large-scale solar PV energy, a low-carbon technology. SkyPower Global strongly supports any mechanism that encourages the generation or adoption of clean, renewable energy and dramatically reduces carbon emissions.

In August 2014, SkyPower formally aligned with the UN Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing, signaling its support of carbon pricing as a necessary and effective measure to address climate change. As the Strategic Champion of the United Nations Caring for Climate initiative and a signatory of the Global Compact, SkyPower is a committed advocate of carbon pricing or corporate rewards as compelling incentives to consciously curb emission levels

Published in collaboration with The World Bank

Author: Kerry Adler is President and Chief Executive Officer of SkyPower Global.

Image: Solar panels of local mining company CAP are seen in the Atacama Desert June 5, 2014. REUTERS/Fabian Andres Cambero