Covid-19 could open up carbon pricing

Dr Kian Mintz-Woo of the UCC Environmental Research Institute said: "Since carbon pollution already increases health and environmental costs borne by society, forcing those generating the costs to pay for them would lead to fairer production and consumption."

The Covid-19 pandemic has created the ideal conditions to introduce carbon pricing to help tackle climate change, according to new policy research from University College Cork (UCC) and Princeton University.

The paper identifies that increased costs from carbon pricing are better placed to be introduced now when energy prices are at historic lows, with energy producers more able to absorb changes as energy production is currently destabilised globally, and argues that governments have an opportune time to introduce carbon pricing by illustrating how the increased additional revenue can be used to meet the needs of its electorate recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.