Governments should intervene in carbon markets to help establish a sustainable price for harmful emissions, the new chief executive of Shell has said. Peter Voser told The Guardian that while markets will be able to set the price over the long-term, governments will need to play a role in the early years.

 

'Over the long term the market should be capable of working out the CO2 price,' he said. 'But I can see a scenario where in the first few years you have to intervene to get the market going. I should not be opposed to that.'

 

The commented is cited to be a reversal of Shell's longstanding view that it did not support governments setting a floor price within Europe’s trading scheme.

 

A Greenpeace spokesman said: 'Shell is accepting what everyone else has known for a long time – that you can't rely on the European Union's emissions trading scheme to deliver technologies like CCS.'

 

This week (November 23), actoncopenhagen.gov.uk are interviewing businesses to hear their message for Copenhagen.

 

Related links

Shell: market alone cannot deliver green energy, Guardian 24 November 2009

Business voices for Copenhagen