Overview
- Delegates in Belém announced the Open Coalition on Compliance Carbon Markets, with initial participants including the EU, China, Canada, the UK, Mexico, Chile and Zambia.
- The initiative seeks to harmonize accounting, standards and verification across national cap-and-trade systems so carbon units can eventually be traded internationally, a process experts say will take years.
- The EU Environment Council postponed the start of its buildings-and-transport carbon market (ETS2) to 2028, citing affordability pressures and uneven impacts of a uniform price across member states with different incomes.
- Debate has intensified over price signals versus subsidies and regulation, with an ETH Zürich study cited finding CO2 pricing can be up to five times more cost‑effective than targeted support programs.
- At COP30, the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism continues to face pushback as a perceived trade barrier, while EU officials and analysts argue coordinated markets could cut carbon leakage and reshape incentives for high‑emitting exporters.