Carbon Pricing Raised Just Over $100 Billion in 2024 and Now Covers 28% of Global Emissions
The World Bank's annual State and Trends of Carbon Pricing report, published on 10 June 2025, counts 80 carbon pricing instruments in operation around the world, covering about 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The instruments include both carbon taxes and emissions trading systems at national and subnational levels. Carbon pricing mobilised just over $100 billion for public budgets in 2024, according to the report. Emissions trading systems supplied about two-thirds of that revenue and carbon taxes about one-third.
Coverage has grown mainly through the expansion of large emissions trading systems in emerging economies. China's national carbon market, which until 2025 covered only the power sector, is the largest by covered emissions, and its expansion to steel, cement and aluminium, announced in March 2025, will add about 3 billion tonnes a year of covered emissions. India has adopted a carbon credit trading scheme with emissions intensity targets for energy-intensive industries. The fall in emissions trading revenue reflects lower allowance prices in some major systems, particularly the EU emissions trading system, where prices in 2024 were below their 2023 levels.
The World Bank's reports have consistently found that most carbon prices are below the levels that modelling studies associate with meeting the Paris Agreement temperature goals. In emerging economies, carbon pricing revenue is generally smaller relative to the size of the economy, but it can still be significant for specific programmes. The EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, which enters its definitive phase in January 2026, is influencing carbon pricing decisions elsewhere. Countries with significant exports of steel, aluminium, cement and fertilisers to the EU, including Türkiye, India, Ukraine and several Western Balkan states, have cited CBAM in discussions of domestic carbon pricing.
Carbon prices affect energy markets mainly through the power sector and heavy industry. As coverage expands in large emerging economies, particularly China, India, Indonesia and Brazil, the share of global coal and gas consumption subject to some form of carbon price will rise.