A carbon price is a monetary cost put on the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from anthropogenic activities, such as the use of fossil fuels or process emissions. It must be implemented by governments through legislation.

One common objective should be to bring some economic order to what might otherwise be a chaotic and expensive process of reducing emissions within the economy.

Carbon price-based approaches are designed to do this. Carbon prices are also technology-neutral, in that
they do not favor one type of lowemissions technology over another.