Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down tracks how emissions trading systems, carbon taxes, fuel and electricity excise taxes, and subsidies that lower pre-tax prices on emissions or energy products have evolved between 2021 and 2023 across 79 countries, covering approximately 82% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The tax rates are for 1 April 2023, while emissions trading schemes implemented throughout 2023 are also included. Fuel excise taxes, which implicitly price carbon, declined after the energy crisis, while there has been an increase in the development of emissions trading systems.
Although the coverage of global greenhouse gas emissions by pricing systems stalled at 42% between 2021 and 2023, governments are preparing for higher carbon prices by expanding existing mechanisms or introducing new ones. Some are also considering cross-border effects and new policies, such as border carbon adjustments.
The report estimates that with 15 new carbon pricing schemes currently under development – mostly emissions trading schemes (ETSs) – coverage of emissions by an ETS or a carbon tax will rise from 27% to 34% over the next five years, bringing total coverage close to 50% of GHG emissions across the 79 economies.
“The recent energy crisis has driven carbon prices and energy taxes downwards. However, looking ahead, we see governments preparing for more ambitious climate action. And as we approach 2030, the expansion of existing carbon mitigation mechanisms and the introduction of new ones offer tremendous opportunity for progress towards our shared objectives,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said.