Edmond Alphandéry, IFF Vice-chairman, Chairman of Euro 50 Group and Former Minister of Economy of France, has created a Task Force on Carbon Pricing in Europe whose objective is to encourage European authorities, in the framework of the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to target the price of carbon instead of the volume of carbon emissions.

A Chinese delegation has been invited in Paris by this Task Force in order to exchange views about a joint initiative between a Chinese delegation under the umbrella of the International Finance Forum (IFF) and the Task Force on Carbon Pricing in Europe, to promote the idea of a convergent price of carbon in Europe and in China. 

The IFF delegation was composed of: 

Han  Seung-soo, IFF Co-chairman, Former Prime Minister of Republic of Korea, Former President of the General Assembly ofthe United Nations
ZHANG Jizhong, Secretary General and CEO, IFF
WANG Yi, Member of Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Deputy Director General of Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences
ZHUANG Joanna, Vice Secretary General, IFF
SUN  Xiao, Head of Event Management, IFF
TANG  Hua, Head of Foreign Affairs, IFF
5 Representatives from China’s Green Innovation Enterprises & Carbon Finance Institutions

The European delegation was composed of:  

ALPHANDERY Edmond, Chairman of the Task force on Carbon Pricing in Europe
ANGLES D’AURIAC Etienne, Director Climate at Total
CASTERMAN Hervé, Vice President Environment at Engie
DEBARRE Romain, Managing Director of the A.T. Kearney Energy Transition Institute and Member of the Task force on Carbon Pricing in Europe
FLUES Florens, Economist at the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration
HILLENBRAND SAPONAR, Catharina Sector Advisor for Energy, Metals, and Machinery and Equipment at Euler Hermes
MANDIL Claude, Former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency and Member of the Board of the AT Kearney Energy Transition Institute
MASSIS Nina, CEO of ARPE (in charge of the Task Force communication)
MESTRALLET Gérard, Co-Chairman of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition
PRAG Andrew, Head of the Environment and Climate Change Unit at the International Energy Agency
SCHULZE Olaf, Director Energy Management, Investments & Technical Solutions at METRO AG
SEEWALD Matthias, Director of Investments of Allianz France
VAN DENDER Kurt, Head of the Tax and Environment Unit and Senior Tax Economist at the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration

Monday May 13^th Morning session – CHINA-EU CLIMATE CHANGE & CARBON PRICING PROGRESS REVIEW

Venue: Banque Nomura France

On Monday 13^th morning, the first meeting took place between the European and the Chinese delegations to which Former Prime Minister of South Korea, Mr Han Seung-Soo, participated. 

·This session was introduced by the presentation of the activities of the International Finance Forum made by SUN Yiting (the China Report for 2019 has been made available to all participants).IFF activities encompass a broad spectrum of major global issues. This appears in the agenda of the last event which took place in Guangzhou on November 23 – 25, 2018 whose programme which is described in the IFF China Report 2019, deals with the following issues: “New globalisation: the path to the future”, “Redesigning the international trading and monetary system”, “the Belt and Road initiative”, “Financial deepening, fintech development and green financing” and “the Bay area development”.

·This presentation was followed by a description by Edmond Alphandéry of the objectives of the Task Force on Carbon Pricing in Europe. According to Edmond Alphandéry, carbon pricing is the most efficient existing device to fight global warming. Europe which has put in place a market for carbon more than 30 years ago is still targeting the volume of emissions permits and not the price of carbon. As a consequence, the price of carbon is very volatile. Starting from more than 30 €/ton, it fell to 3€/ton. Even though due to a recent reduction of emissions permits available its price increased up to more than 25 €/ton, there is no certainty that it will not decrease in the future. In terms of investment decision making in the energy sector, and more generally when it comes to the behaviours of economic agents concerning activities which are producing carbon, we are lacking in Europe the powerful impact of a carbonprice signal.With the assistance of important European firms, think-tanks, representatives of the academic world as well as policymakers, the Task Force intends to promote introduction of price targeting in the framework of the ETS with an objective of an increase of this price at a pace which allows a smooth energy transition towards decarbonisation.

·Professor Doctor Wang Yi, Deputy Director General of Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASS), described the progress of China for addressing climate change.

·Claude Mandil, Former Executive Director of the International Energy, presented the European policy to address climate change. 

Monday May 13^th Noon – Welcom Reception

Venue: Engie

After an exchange of views on these two presentations, a shuttle took the Chinese delegation to Engie.
A lunch was organised by Engie for the Chinese delegation. After welcoming the Chinese members, Isabelle Kocher, the CEO of Engie, described the strategy of Engie which is based on the energy transition. Engie which is the largest utility globally in the energy services to businesses and territories is committed to participating to decarbonisation. Isabelle Kocher emphasised the importance for Engie of a carbon price signal which is credible, significant and predictable.

Monday May 13^thAfternoon session – CARBON PRICING AS A CATALYST TO THE ENERGY TRANSITION

Venue: Engie

·The afternoon session was introduced by a presentation made by Andrew Prag, Head of the Environment and Climate Change Unit at the International Energy Agency. Andrew Prag showed the recent evolution of carbon emissions in the world and how carbon pricing plays a critical role for decarbonisation. He illustrated this point through the recent policy followed by the UK.

·Then the participants to this session listened to two presentations: one from Didier Holleaux, Deputy CEO at Engie, which focused on the impact of carbon pricing for cities and industries. It was clear from Mr Holleaux’s presentation that a smooth energy transition through a carbon pricing device would create a lot of opportunities for business. These new activities and new jobs would largely compensate for losses in carbon-emitting sectors.

·Another presentation from the Chinese side was made by TANG Renhu, CEO of SinoCarbon Innovation & Investment Co. Ltd. “China is promoting energy transformation, using a mixture of measures such as setting carbon emission targets and encouraging the application of advanced new technologies”. Mr TANG stressed that carbon pricing was important for Chinese firms. According to him, there is evidence that the price of carbon has already promoted renewables in China.

·At the end of this session, David Gosset, President and founder of the Europe-China Forum, presented his project of “rating smart cities” in the framework of the One Belt, One Road initiative. 

Monday May 13^thAfternoon reception – MEETING WITH LAURENT FABIUS

Venue: Conseil Constitutionnel

The delegation met Laurent Fabius, Chairman of ConseilConstitutionnel, former Prime Minister of France and former Chairman of COP21. The reception took place in the premises of ConseilConstitutionnel. Laurent Fabius stressed the crucial role to be played by a price of carbon in the fight against global warming.  He announced that if a high-level event was taking place in China to support a joint initiative between Europe and China to promote carbon pricing, he was ready to make the trip and join the European delegation. He was pleased to be invited to join IFF board and showed the willingness to attend the future CHINA-EU Climate Change & Carbon Pricing meetings as part of EU delegation.

Tuesday May 14^th Morning session – CHINA-EU CARBON PRICING INITIATIVE

Venue: Office of Gérard Mestrallet

The European delegation discussed with the IFF staffs in order to put in place an agenda for the joint initiative in the next 12 months:
1)Discussion about a second meeting in the US next fall (after the first meeting in Paris, 13–14 May 2019)
Date: 22 or 23 September 2019, during the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in New York City, to announce the China-EU Carbon Pricing Initiative.

2)Discussion about an informal meeting in China
An informal meeting of the China-EU Carbon Pricing Initiative could take place next November in Guangzhou, during the Annual Meeting of the IFF (22 – 24 November 2019).