Partnership for Market Readiness

Background and Objective

The Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) was launched at the climate talks in Cancún in 2010. The World Bank initiative promotes the establishment of a global carbon market and supports proactive countries in preparing and implementing innovative carbon market instruments. The PMR provides financial and technical support and also serves as a dialogue forum to share experience between countries having market-based instruments already in place and countries currently implementing such instruments. The PMR now boasts more than 30 countries, among them some of the world’s largest emitters. The PMR was opened to sub-national participants in 2014, thus further broadening its reach.

Implementation

The work performed by the PMR is based on a two-tier process. In the first phase, the participating countries prepare market readiness proposals (MRPs) in which they list specific deficits of and measures for targeted development and implementation of carbon pricing instruments. The MRPs are presented and approved at a plenary meeting of the PMR. In the second phase, the countries receive technical and financial support to enable them to develop and implement the planned instruments. To date, 19 countries have drawn up MRPs for the planning, design and piloting of a carbon pricing instrument, In addition, the PMR is helping four other countries enhance their domestic carbon pricing policies.

In addition to these concrete support measures, the PMR also promotes the transfer of knowledge between participating countries by offering workshops, training seminars and regular meetings at which participants can exchange knowledge and experience. The PMR takes a strong participative approach, enabling participants to engage in exchange far removed from sharing experience with politically controversial technical matters. The approach also ensures that the knowledge and experience shared flows into the official UN process.

These two prongs of the PMR approach are flanked by the publication of reports and background studies on selected topics involving price-based climate action. The publications made available via the PMR website are developed in cooperation with renowned experts in the field.

Milestones and Outlook

All in all, the Partnership provided funding and technical guidance to 23 countries, allocated 84.7 million US-Dollars to support governments in their readiness activities and hosted more than 60 knowledge exchange events.

In 2020 the PMR was replaced by the Partnership for Market Implementation (PMI). The PMI is intended to provide participating countries with further support in implementing concrete carbon market instruments. With a term of a further 10 years and a capitalisation target of USD 250 million, the PMI aims to contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement through an ambitious plan. An interview provides insights into the main changes in the new programme PMI.