Brazil proposes integrating carbon markets

Brazil calls for global integration of carbon markets at COP30.

"Carbon markets can be important sources of government revenue, but they will only become scalable if all countries move to common emission trading parameters," Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at the COP30 climate summit currently underway in Brazil.

He called the creation of a single carbon market "one of the most important results of COP30." According to the Brazilian president, this would facilitate the trading of CO2 emissions quotas and help accelerate progress toward the goals of the Paris Agreement.

There are currently more than 40 carbon tax mechanisms and 35 emissions trading systems in operation worldwide, which together cover about 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"The initiative to create a single global carbon market holds great promise. Implementing such a mechanism would promote a market-based approach and lead to more effective emission reductions in industry. However, for the initiative to yield tangible results, major emitting countries must not only support the Brazilian-led carbon market coalition but also conclude binding agreements, at least at the subregional level," said Vinod Thomas, Senior Vice President of the World Bank.

To date, China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Armenia, Zambia and France have joined the Brazil-led Carbon Market Coalition.

Its member countries are working to harmonize national standards and systems for taxation and trading of greenhouse gas emissions quotas and to create, on this basis, a multilateral mechanism for global carbon markets.