2020 PES GM 8/4 Panel Session: Carbon Pricing: Design Constraints and Impacts on Wholesale Electricity Markets

Due to increased concerns over climate change, many countries and jurisdictions around the world are implementing carbon pricing mechanisms. Some of these are economy-wide and some of them are targeted to particular sectors - but impacts over the electricity sector are invariably felt. This panel will address the international experience with the design and implementation of the two main types of carbon pricing mechanisms: emissions trading systems (ETS) and carbon taxes. Panelists from the USA, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia will present the technical, economic and political constraints their jurisdictions faced while designing and implementing carbon pricing mechanism, focusing on the dynamics of the electricity sector. Impacts on wholesale electricity markets will be discussed, based on verified results in countries that already implemented either ETS or carbon taxes, or on studies evaluating policy decisions where the carbon pricing mechanism is still in the design stage..