Tom Howes, Division Head, IEA, William Acworth, Head of Secretariat, ICAP and Christian Hübner, Director, KAS RECAP delivered welcoming remarks, reiterating that climate change mitigation ambitions still need to be accelerated with the global community entering the 5th year of the Paris Agreement.

In the keynote session, Ken O’Flaherty, COP26 Regional Ambassador for Asia, Pacific and South Asia highlighted the important role of carbon pricing in transition to low carbon economy. Due to the introduction of a carbon price floor in 2013 and extra taxes on fossil fuels, the United Kingdom experienced a deep decline of the use of coal in electricity supply in the past few years.

In the first panel discussion, Hon. Hideki Makihara, Member of the House of Representatives, the Lower House of the National Diet of Japan and Director, Environment Division, Policy Research Council, Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, Rep. Edgar M. Chatto, Representative of the 1st District of Bohol and Chairman of the House Committee on Climate Change, the Republic of the Philippines and Hon. Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri, Member of Parliament, House of Representatives of Republic of Indonesia (Commission VII) shared an update on climate change plans of their respective countries namely Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. They all agreed on the benefits of carbon pricing in climate change mitigation.

In the second panel discussion, Hon. Kay Harrison, Climate Change Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand, Medrilzam Medrilzam, Director for Environmental Affairs, Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS), Indonesia, Jian Wei, Director (Policy and Planning), National Climate Change. Secretariat, Strategy Group Prime Minister's Office, Singapore and Wang Jijie from China provided an overview of carbon pricing policy in their countries. They acknowledged the significant role of carbon pricing mechanisms in meeting the Paris Agreement targets.

James Grabert, Director, Mitigation and Acting Director, Communication & Engagement, United Nations Climate Change Secretariat delivered closing remarks with five important take-aways: there is a strong political will for pricing carbon; all countries are firmly engaged in low carbon pathways; in parallel, countries are facing other economic and social challenges; countries are engaged in decarbonisation with facing unique domestic challenges on carbon pricing; governments are keen to share at a regional level their experiences and their solutions on carbon pricing.