Carbon pricing around the world

Evolution of revenue by carbon pricing instrument

Source : World Bank, 2025

To encourage economic decision-makers to invest more in clean energy or low-carbon technologies and less in GHG-emitting technologies, some states have decided to put an economic value on the emission of a tonne of CO₂.

Two instruments put an explicit price on carbon: the carbon tax sets a price per tonne of CO₂, and the Emissions Trading System (ETS) sets a maximum quantity of allowable emissions.

Carbon pricing instruments generated revenues of $102 billion in 2024, compared with $8 billion in 2010, a little over 12-fold increase in 14 years. In 2024, 68% of carbon revenues were generated by allowance markets, i.e. $69 billion, and 32% by taxes.

Evolution of the share of global GHG emissions covered by a carbon pricing instrument

Note: coverage data come from governments or estimates. They are related to global GHG emissions in the EDGAR database.
Source: World Bank, 2025

With the exception of a few national carbon taxes in European countries, it was not until the introduction of the European Emissions Trading Scheme in 2005 that the share of global GHG emissions covered by carbon pricing instruments exceeded 1%. It was then in North America and Asia that carbon taxes and quota markets multiplied, reaching 26% coverage by 2025. Africa had its first instrument in 2019, with the creation of a carbon tax in South Africa.

The European trading scheme covers 40% of the European Union's GHG emissions. In France, the carbon tax (44.6 €/t CO₂ eq) covers 41% of emissions, mainly in transport, residential, services and industry outside the ETS. A number of sectors and uses are exempt or benefit from reduced rates.