COP21 and beyond: challenges for a fair agreement and the significance of the social and economic value of carbon mitigation actions and related positive carbon pricing

On the eve of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) a shared optimism is registered among policy-makers, academics and key stakeholders. Six years after Copenhagen a new international agreement on climate change appears now at hand. Yet reaching an effective and strong agreement requires the solution of several open issues, with the recognition of the ‘social and economic value of mitigation actions’ (SEVMA) being at the top of them. This paper aims at framing this recognition both within and beyond the agreement, thus providing evidence of its relevance for the future of climate change mitigation. In doing so, the paper looks at the current state and possible developments of the more practical aspects of the SEVMA proposal, in order to avoid that it become an ‘empty shell.’ The analysis of these practical aspects primarily focuses on the understanding of two different proposals designed within the SEVMA framework and its correlated concept of ‘positive carbon pricing’: the proposal to finance low carbon investment in Europe, advocated by France Stratégie; and the proposal to establish a global carbon mechanism developed by a team of researchers at the University of Sussex.