Obama: Carbon Price Tag Would Drive Innovation
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the best way to drive innovation and reduce carbon emissions is "to put a price on it" but he does not expect that from the current Republican-dominated U.S. Congress.
"If you put a price on it, then the entire market would respond," he told a news conference at the U.N. climate conference in Paris.
As people come to realize the costs of climate change, Obama said they will start to put a price tag on the damage it is doing. Insurance companies are beginning to realize that in terms of how they price risk, he said.
"It may be that the politics around setting up a cap-and-trade system, for example, shifts as well," he said. "Obviously I'm not under any illusion that this Congress will impose something like that."
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu)
