A Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC), a World Bank initiative of which the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) is a strategic partner, held its second High-Level Assembly Meeting on April 20th in Washington, DC. The event brought together World Bank President Jim Yong Kim; International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director Christine Lagarde; senior leaders from 26 companies committed to reducing emissions; government representatives from 36 countries; and 33 strategic partners from around the world.
CEBDS President Marina Grossi also participated in the meeting and emphasized that, in the current scenario, carbon pricing depends more on political stability than on technical issues. "Companies can provide the necessary support to achieve this political stability. And, in this way, market decisions can be made on a more realistic basis," she said. According to the CEBDS president, the main messages of the meeting were:Price it right“, “tax smart” and “do it now“".
During the event, the CPLC launched its first report, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Report, in which CEBDS was highlighted. The publication “Carbon pricing: what the business sector needs to know to position itself", prepared by the Council in partnership with CDP and supported by We Mean Business, was one of more than 60 actions that have been undertaken by governments, companies and institutions around the world in favor of the adoption of carbon pricing as a way to enable the achievement of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, as agreed at COP 21 in Paris.
"I hope that by sharing these success stories, we can inspire others to discover their own solutions and move with the speed and scale needed to finally address climate change," said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, one of the Coalition's leaders.
CEBDS's role in the carbon pricing agenda
With Brazil's commitment to implement a pricing mechanism by 2020, CEBDS has been working to build and disseminate knowledge among its member companies, partners, and society in general, in addition to engaging with the government on what these mechanisms are and what the best model would be for the country.
In 2015, CEBDS launched, in partnership with CDP and with support from the Climate and Society Institute (ICS), its first guide on the subject with the goal of clarifying what carbon pricing is and expanding national knowledge about what is already being practiced around the world. In partnership with We Mean Business, the organization began to spread this debate in traditional media and on social media.
In the same year, CEBDS was invited to join the Advisory Board of Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) Brazil, a World Bank initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Finance.
The publication that was highlighted in the Carbon Pricing Leadership Report, was launched in 2016 during COP22, in MarrakeshThe study addresses the effectiveness of carbon pricing in reducing emissions, its benefits to socioeconomic development, its impact on the competitiveness of different sectors, and an overview of the various mechanisms that countries have adopted around the world. The content of this publication was developed with CEBDS member companies and partners in a workshop also in 2016.
