The upcoming Paris climate summit has evoked a clarion call from business leaders. In Oslo, a group of corporate leaders from the alliance of 78 major global companies urged world governments to introduce pricing of carbon emissions as a major component of their policies to curb global warming.

The appeal comes in the backdrop of the global summit on climate change in Paris from Nov.30 where each government will be taking a stand on emission mitigation commitments.

The Paris summit is expected to bring together 200 nations and they will deliberate on matters of climate change from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 and map out a program to bring in a positive change in the world economy with a low-carbon outlook for the future and a road map to stop the dependence on fossil fuels, reports Reuters.

Ensure economic growth

The corporate alliance represents companies with a combined annual turnover of US$2.1 trillion (AU$4.06 trillion). Their open letter to world leaders also sought an ambitious deal in Paris for ensuring economic growth and jobs.

The signatories in the letter included CEOs of HSBC, Siemens, SOHO China, PepsiCo, Engie, Mahindra Group, Tata Nestlé, BT Group, Unilever and PwC.

“We believe that effective climate policies have to include explicit or implicit prices on carbon achieved via market mechanisms or coherent legislative measures according to national preferences," they wrote.

Making a strong pitch for an ideal pricing method, they said, would “trigger low-carbon investment and transform current emission patterns at a significant scale,” and noted their own voluntary actions in cutting carbon emissions.

Ben & Jerry’s model

While many companies are still unclear on what entails carbon pricing with only a few ready for its use as a future index for assessing the costs of pollution and as a catalyst for greener technologies, in the US, leading ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's has already set an example. It implemented a carbon pricing scheme and is paying US dairy farmers for investing in onsite renewable energy generation.

“We're not sitting in the office and demanding they change," noted Jostein Solheim, Ben & Jerry's chief executive in an interview with BusinessGreen.

Ben & Jerry's introduced an internal carbon price and it is passing on the accrued revenues to farmers in financing their bio-digesters that will process manure in making renewable energy and fertilisers.

“You take responsibility for your own carbon use, and me as the user, I'm paying for it, “explained Solheim, while adding that the farmer is also helped with additional revenue streams by focussing on the creation of many by-products.

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