Carbon Pricing Around the World: Leveraging 10 years of Experience in the EU

Date: 5th December, 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm

Location: European Pavilion, Room Luxembourg

Partner(s): World Bank – Partnership for Market Readiness, and Ecofys

The side event discussed the EUE TS – currently the world’s oldest and largest emissions trading scheme – and what lessons can be drawn and applied to other (emerging and developing) countries looking to put a price on carbon.

Moderator : Benoît LEGUET, Managing Director I4CE – Institute for Climate Economics

Key messages:

• Noémie Klein, Senior Consultant, Ecofys, focused on the results of the latest State and Trends report (World Bank and Ecofys) noting that Carbon pricing schemes (current and scheduled) are expected to account for 21% of global GHG emissions. View Noemie’s presentation

• Emilie Alberola, Program Director, I4CE – Institute for Climate Economics highlighted some key lessons learned from the EU ETS that would need to be considered to effectively implement an ETS. View Emilie’s presentation
  • When designing an emissions cap, interactions with complementary energy policies (RES, EE) and other abatement measures must be accounted for;
  • Targeted free allocation is necessary to protect vulnerable entities;
  • For long term effectiveness an ETS requires robust governance and provisions to enhance flexibility
  • When investing ETS revenues Factors of variability and the leverage effect on private finance should be considered.

• Xueman Wang, World Bank then discussed how building technical capacity and political willingness are fundamental to the PMR program and mobilizing carbon pricing around the world. View Xueman’s presentation

• Wang Shu, Deputy Director, Climate Change Department, National Development Reform Commission (NDRC) spoke from China’s ETS experience and the lessons learned from the EU ETS stressing the importance of reliable MRV at facilitating fairness, transparency and trust among the participants. China has also learned from the EU allowances approach and will progressive shift from free allocation to auctioning. The consultation process used by the EU Commission to mobilize stakeholders constitutes an interesting element for China before drafting its legislation proposal.