Business and carbon pricing

At the UN Climate Summit last September, the World Bank and others put the carbon pricing – or perhaps more correctly carbon valuation – discussion squarely back on the agenda, first with a Statement on Carbon Pricing signed by over 1000 companies and 70 governments and then with a series of side events and meetings which also carried through to COP20 in Lima. The World Bank is now building on their initiative throughout 2015 as we head towards COP21 in Paris.

One important aspect of the initiative is the role of business and the way in which companies handle the carbon pricing (carbon valuation) agenda internally. This stems from another part of the World Bank initiative which was initially launched by the UN Global Compact, the Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing. The criteria are designed to encourage companies to incorporate an internal carbon price (value) within the business, advocate for  carbon value generally and communicate on progress. The first of these has led to some interesting discussions in various forums, with a range of views emerging as to what an internal carbon price (value) does and how it is applied.

Some observers have concluded that an internal approach operates as a true proxy cost of carbon emissions within the business that is applying it, such that the business behaves as if it were subjected to an external carbon tax operating at the same price. This would be done in the absence of such an external price driver, therefore acting as a stand-in for the lack of government action. To some extent, wishful thinking is operating here, with some believing that internal carbon pricing can lead to widespread emission reductions as a major business led initiative. But this is not what is happening or what is meant by an internal carbon price.

Rather, the internal “carbon price”, also referred to as a “shadow carbon price”, “carbon price premise” or “carbon screening value” is normally a mechanism used to manage the future regulatory risk that parts of the company or a future project may be exposed to. For example, if a certain investment is to be made, that investment is then tested against a variety of future conditions, which could include an eventual cost incurred by the expected emissions of carbon dioxide. Although the project may not immediately be exposed to such a price, the development of climate legislation over the life of the project may create such an exposure, which in turn could threaten the future viability of the asset. The application of a screening value applied when the investment proposal is being assessed allows the investor to reconsider the project, change the scope, modify the design or simply accept the level of risk and proceed.

The practice of applying an internal carbon price (value) in this manner is one of many steps that a company may take as it prepares for a world in which a real cost on carbon emissions becomes an external reality. The World Bank has developed a series of case studies on these preparatory measures and these have been published very recently in a report titled “Preparing for Carbon Pricing, Case Studies from Company Experience: Royal Dutch Shell, Rio Tinto, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company”. The report was prepared by the Washington based Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) under the auspices of the Partnership for Market Readiness, a World Bank initiative.

These case studies illustrate the benefits of incorporating climate change policies into corporate strategies; analyzing risks and opportunities in an environment of new public policies; and engaging effectively with relevant stakeholders—including governments. The case studies also show how carbon assets are traded and what systems are being constructed to monitor, report, and verify company level GHG emissions.