Resources

For the last few years, the World Bank has published the “State and Trends of Carbon Pricing.” Their most recent report was published in May 2022. Every year this report is an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments around the world, including international, national and subnational initiatives. It also investigates trends surrounding the development and implementation of carbon pricing instruments and how they could accelerate the delivery of long-term mitigation goals. Specifically, this includes the use of carbon taxes, emissions trading systems and crediting mechanisms. Key topics covered in the 2022 report include cross-border approaches to carbon pricing, challenges and opportunities from rising energy prices, and new technologies and governance frameworks shaping carbon markets. The World Bank has also created a Carbon Pricing Dashboard which shows a map and key statistics on carbon pricing initiatives around the world.

For over a decade, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report has provided a yearly review of the difference between where greenhouse emissions are predicted to be in 2030 and where they should be to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The most recent report was published in November 2022 and presents the latest data on the expected gap in 2030 for the 1.5°C and 2°C temperature targets of the Paris Agreement. Policies currently in place point to a 2.8°C temperature rise by the end of the century. Implementation of the current pledges will only reduce this to a 2.4-2.6°C temperature rise by the end of the century, for conditional and unconditional pledges respectively. To hold global warming to 1.5°C, emissions must fall by 45% over those envisaged under current policies by 2030. For the 2°C target, a 30% cut is needed.

The International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) is an international forum for governments and public authorities that have implemented or are planning to implement emissions trading systems (ETS). ICAP facilitates cooperation between countries, sub-national jurisdictions and supranational institutions that have established or are actively pursuing carbon markets through mandatory cap-and-trade systems. ICAP’s “Emissions Trading Worldwide: Status Report 2023” provides a detailed picture of the latest developments in emissions trading, with infographics, updated detailed factsheets on the world’s carbon markets and comprehensive articles by ETS policymakers and practitioners from around the world. ICAP’s website can be found here.

Ecosystem Marketplace, an initiative of the non-profit organization Forest Trends, was initially created to improve transparency and price discovery in the voluntary carbon markets. Since 2006, their team has distributed annual surveys to its network of project developers, investors, retailers and brokers to collect confidential information about their voluntary carbon offsets transactions. Their latest report is based on a global network of more than 230 respondents, with traded credits from projects located in over 100 countries. Ecosystem Marketplace data shows that 2021 was a historic, record-breaking year for the voluntary carbon markets. Transactions in 2021 totaled nearly US$2 billion, with a surge in transactions coming late in the year. That is a nearly four-fold increase from 2020 transactions (US$520 million).

Our World in Data (OWID) is a scientific online publication that focuses on large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks and inequality. Its mission is to present “research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.” The web publication contains interactive data visualizations (charts and maps) on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions.