Introductory literature

This section provides you with further introductory literature on selected areas of the carbon markets.

Carbon Pricing worldwide

Wuppertal Institute (2021). Carbon Pricing: Using Market-based Mechanisms to Mitigate Climate Change. Wuppertal: The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
This brochure provides an overview of the various carbon pricing approaches, explains how they work, and presents the current state of development.

World Bank (2022): State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2022. Washington, DC: World Bank.
This World Bank report provides a good overview of the current status of carbon pricing initiatives worldwide. State and Trends of Carbon Pricing is updated annually.

ICAP (2023): Emissions Trading Worldwide: Status Report 2023. Berlin: International Carbon Action Partnership.
The ICAP status report in English presents the current developments in emissions trading systems worldwide.

PMR and ICAP (2021): Emissions Trading in Practice: a Handbook on Design and Implementation (2nd Edition). Washington D.C.: The World Bank.
The second edition builds on the key insights of the first edition, incorporating the important learnings and developments that have taken place over the last five years, as well as critical feedback gained from the practical application of the ETS Handbook by policymakers and practitioners in designing and implementing ETSs. 

PMR (2017): Carbon Tax Guide: A Handbook for Policy Makers. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.
This handbook supports political decision-makers in designing and implementing a CO₂ tax. The guide provides both conceptual analysis and key practical insights from the implementation of carbon taxes around the world.

Cooperative Approaches under Article 6

Michaelowa, Axel, et al. (2022): Pocket Guide to Article 6. Under the Paris Agreement. Oxford: Oxford Climate Policy.
This guide provides valuable information on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. In this context, it summarizes the main decisions that have already been taken and provides information and analysis on the outstanding issues.

Carbon Market Watch (2020): Carbon markets 101 – the ultimate guide to global offsetting mechanisms (version 2).
This briefing gives an overview of the current discussions under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement which establishes the foundation for market-based climate measures after 2020. It lays out key lessons from the Kyoto Protocol markets, highlights essential issues within the Article 6 negotiations, and provides recommendations on how to solve them.

Michaelowa, Axel, Aglaja Espelage and Benito Müller (2019): Negotiating cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
This strategy paper explains the crunch issues of the negotiations on Article 6 in generally accessible language, highlighting key differences between negotiating Parties.

Mehling, Michael A (2018): Governing Cooperative Approaches under the Paris Agreement (Discussion Paper ES 18-8) (p. 84).
This working paper presents key positions of the actors in the negotiations on Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement and assesses relevant options currently under discussion. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations on the governance of Article 6.2.

Schneider, Lambert and Stephanie La Hoz Theuer (2018): Environmental integrity of international carbon market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement: Climate Policy, 1–15.
This journal article systematically examines the environmental integrity risks associated with the use of international market mechanisms and presents approaches to address them.

The voluntary carbon market

Umweltbundesamt (2021): Carbon Offsettiing.
This regulasection of the German Federal Environment Agency website provides a good overview of voluntary carbon offsetting and points to valuable additional sources of information and publications.

Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace (2022): State of Voluntary Carbon Markets. Washington, DC: Forest Trends.
This regularly published report provides an overview of developments in the voluntary carbon market.

Dyck, Melaina, et al. (2021): The Voluntary Carbon Market Explained. Berlin: Climate Focus. 
The report aims to provide a better understanding and overview of the voluntary carbon market. Each chapter covers individual aspects of the market and can be read as a stand-alone fact sheet or part of a larger report.