Wopke Hoekstra

The head of the EU’s Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth commission believes ongoing collaboration on energy, trade and climate action between Europe and Canada can create “much more traction” for plans to establish an international carbon market, seen as a key mechanism to curb rising greenhouse gas levels. Wopke Hoekstra said carbon pricing could be “hugely impactful” in creating a commercial incentive for polluting industries to shrink their carbon footprint by linking financial costs to CO2 emissions. “If you think about the tools that can come out of a COP that is going to be less about sweeping statements and more about implementation, carbon pricing, particularly in the context of [climate change] mitigation, is at the very top of the list,” he said. Hoekstrat called carbon pricing “truly an idea for which the time has come.”