Public revenues from carbon pricing reached $107 billion in 2025, tripling over the past decade, according to the World Bank's State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2026 report.
A biodiverse rainforest illustrating nature-based carbon credits. AI generated picture.
Emissions trading systems (ETS) generated $87 billion of that total, with carbon taxes accounting for the remaining $20 billion. The World Bank identified 87 carbon pricing instruments active globally, seven more than the previous year.
Direct carbon pricing now covers just over 29% of global carbon emissions. That share would rise to approximately one-third if instruments currently under development in several major emerging economies were implemented, the report notes.
All large middle-income economies have either implemented or are planning to implement a carbon pricing scheme. Recent additions include India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), Vietnam's ETS, and Japan's GX-ETS system.
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The average global carbon price rose to $21 per tonne of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e) in 2025, a 7% increase year-on-year and double the level recorded a decade ago. The highest prices were recorded in Europe: Norway's carbon tax reached just under $170/tCO₂e. Prices in Indonesia, Ukraine, and Poland sat below $1/tCO₂e, according to the World Bank's carbon pricing dashboard.
The report signals a broadening of carbon pricing as a policy tool. Governments are increasingly turning to market-based mechanisms to manage carbon emissions, and the steady rise in both the number of schemes and average prices reflects growing policy ambition across regions.
For businesses operating in regulated or high-scrutiny environments, the direction of travel is clear: carbon pricing is expanding in reach and rising in cost.
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