Mr. John McCarthy:

I have a follow-up point to emphasise what the Secretary General said about the carbon tax pathway and the importance of signalling future trends. It is important because it creates certainty. It means economic agents do not lock into expensive systems right now. It creates certainty regarding what the future price will be, which will help reduce emissions directly, but it will also signal to economic agents that it will be increasingly profitable to invest in low-carbon and zero-carbon alternatives, and that it will be profitable to invest in carbon capture, carbon storage and so forth. By creating certainty now and setting out a medium-term trajectory, one can overcome some of the issues associated with the cliff-edge effect.