High-Level Dialogue on Carbon Pricing Value Chain

Moderated discussion and stakeholders’ stocktake
Convened under the Chatham House Rule
Participants will receive thematic brief, invitation and details
Washington, DC — April 14, 2016 — 9:00 am – 11:30 am
At Sullivan and Worcester (by invitation)

This dialogue is third in the series Accelerating Progress, Advancing Innovation. The first dialogue was held on Day 2 of the Minneapolis 2015 conference an produced the strategy document “A Convenient Opportunity“. The second dialogue was held during the COP21 climate negotiations in Paris.

Alongside the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and in support of the first High-Level Assembly of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, this high-level dialogue asked participants to build on the Paris dialogue by examining pressure points and business opportunities that emerge from effective carbon pricing policy design.

Paris Outcomes, Dialogue Focus

Two ideas emerged from the Paris dialogue as useful and necessary tools for achieving an optimal energy transition:

high-efficiency business model innovation as common practice
a detailed understanding of the carbon pricing value chain

By carbon pricing value chain, we mean the landscape of pressures and opportunities, through which an effective carbon pricing strategy exerts influence and drives change. The key benefit of tracing a carbon pricing value chain is enhanced understanding of the hidden value added for commercial, institutional, and public-sector investment planners, of doing business in a market where carbon emissions costs are transparently built into vital everyday economic engagements.

Mapping Future Value

In searching for ways to discern areas of added cost that—instead of being unnecessary and wasteful cost—provide new leverage for generating structural value added, participants focused on a need for new kinds of actionable information. Collaborative information-sharing was identified as necessary for mapping the carbon pricing value chain generally and for discovering ways to adapt it to specific endeavors.

A matrix of best practices were called for as a means of adapting overall CPVC analysis to individual institutions, enterprises, economies, and municipalities.

Mapping areas of hidden value added could provide important structural support for mapping the future we haven’t yet seen. Transparency and accountability in policy reporting and economic transition strategies will be developing as implementation of the Paris Agreement forges ahead—and this may be happening faster than planned in the text of the Agreement, according to leading negotiators—so future value is becoming a tangible quality that can be identified in economies and enterprises.

The carbon pricing value chain flows through the same matrix of relations that make enhanced operational transparency and measurable future value possible. The question, then, becomes: How to make what is hidden visible, how to make sure it remains visible, as a routine consideration of day to day activities—in the Main Street economy, in institutional budget planning, in financial sector priorities?

The substance of this dialogue will be the foundation for ongoing work to develop an interactive, adaptive carbon pricing value chain analysis.

April 14 Program

8:45 am: Coffee and breakfast for participants.
9:00 am – 10:00 am: First half of moderated conference-table dialogue among participants.
10:00 am – 10:15 am: Short coffee break.
10:15 am – 11:15 am: Second half of moderated conference-table dialogue among participants.
11:15 am – 11:30 am: Brief review of proposed focus insights for outcome, discussion of outcome document revision process, proposed follow-up project elaboration.