Carbon Pricing Around the World

Laser Talk

This page was updated on 05/18/18 19:47 CDT.

Question:  Which other countries have started pricing carbon?

Answer:  As of January 2018, 42 national and 25 sub-national governments have instituted some form of carbon pricing. [1] These include both carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes (ETS), and cover about 22 percent of worldwide emissions.

The list of governments that already practice some method of carbon pricing includes Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the U.K. Other countries that are considering joining them include Brazil, South Africa, and Turkey.

The country with the biggest carbon footprint, China, started with eight regional GHG emissions trading projects in 2013, and has now launched a nationwide expansion within their electricity sector. [2]

And our neighbor Canada, where some provinces have already had carbon taxes starting with British Columbia in 2008, now requires all provinces to enact some form of carbon pricing by the end of 2018, with a requirement to reduce emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. [3]

Of the 15 biggest economies in the world, [4] only three – the United States, India, and Russia – do not have any nationwide carbon pricing in place or in the works.

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Related: British Columbia’s Carbon Tax, China and India, Paris Agreement.