As of April 2024, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) carbon price was above 60 U.S. dollars per metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (USD/tCO₂e). The EU ETS launched in 2005 as a cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and was the world's first major international carbon market. The UK was formerly part of the EU ETS, but replaced this with its own system after withdrawing from the EU. As of April 2024, the price of carbon on the UK ETS was 45 USD/tCO₂e.

EU Carbon Permits decreased 2.17 EUR or 2.97% since the beginning of 2025, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for EU Carbon Permits.

Voluntary carbon offset prices could reach as high as 238 U.S. dollars per ton of carbon dioxide (USD/tCO₂) by 2050 if integrity issues within the market are resolved. However, if the market continues to operate without rigorous standards, and integrity issues remain a concern for companies, then carbon offset credits would trade at just 14 USD/tCO₂ in 2050. Meanwhile, prices would soar to 146 USD/tCO₂ by 2030 if the market is restricted to only carbon removals.

The price of emissions allowances (EUA) traded on the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) exceed 100 euros per metric ton of CO₂ for the first time n February 2023. Athough average annual EUA prices have increased significantly since the 2018 reform of the EU-ETS, they fell 19 percent year-on-year in 2023 to 65 euros. What is the EU-ETS? The EU-ETS became the world’s first carbon market in 2005. The scheme was introduced as a way of limiting GHG emissions from polluting installations by putting a price on carbon, thus incentivizing entities to reduce their emissions. A fixed number of emissions allowances are put on the market each year, which can be traded between companies. The number of available allowances is reduced each year. The EU-ETS is now in its fourth phase (2021 to 2030). Volatility of carbon prices EU carbon prices are volatile and change daily. Prices are determined by the supply and demand of allowances. In March 2022, the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war caused EUA prices to crash to less than 60 euros/tCO₂ due to the expected ban on Russian energy imports in Europe.

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Carbon Credit Market Size 2025-2029

The carbon credit market size is forecast to increase by USD 1,966.3 billion at a CAGR of 32.1% between 2024 and 2029.

The market is experiencing significant growth due to rising emissions in the Earth's atmosphere, which necessitates the need for businesses and individuals to offset their carbon footprint. Booming investment and partnership deals in this market are driving its expansion, with various organizations recognizing the importance of reducing their carbon emissions and contributing to environmental sustainability. However, the fluctuating prices of carbon credits pose a challenge for market participants, as they can impact the profitability of carbon offsetting projects.
To stay competitive, market players must closely monitor carbon credit prices and adapt their strategies accordingly. In summary, the market is witnessing increasing demand due to growing environmental concerns and regulatory requirements, but its growth is influenced by the volatility of carbon credit prices.

What will the Carbon Credit Market Size during the forecast period?

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The market has gained significant traction in recent years as businesses and individuals seek to offset their carbon emissions and contribute to the global decarbonization effort. This market facilitates the buying and selling of carbon credits, which represent the right to emit a specific amount of greenhouse gases. The voluntary carbon market plays a crucial role in this context, enabling organizations to offset their carbon footprint beyond regulatory requirements. Net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions have become a key business objective, driving demand for carbon credits from various sources. Forestry projects are a significant contributor to the market. These projects involve the protection, restoration, or reforestation of forests, which act as carbon sinks, absorbing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Carbon emission reduction projects, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives, also contribute to the market. Carbon storage projects, including those focused on geological storage, are another essential component. The market's dynamics are influenced by various factors, including regulatory policies, market prices, and technological advancements. As the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, the demand for carbon credits is expected to continue growing, making it an attractive investment opportunity for businesses and individuals alike.

How is this market segmented and which is the largest segment?

The market research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD billion' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments.

End-user

  Power
  Energy
  Transportation
  Industrial
  Others


Type

  Compliance
  Voluntary


Geography

  Europe

    Germany
    UK
    France
    Italy


  Asia

    China


  North America



  Rest of World (ROW)

By End-user Insights

The power segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.

Carbon credits represent financial instruments that enable organizations to invest in emission reduction projects, contributing to the global effort to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. These initiatives, which focus on conservation, biodiversity, and livelihoods, provide a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Additionally, the energy sector, specifically power generation, can benefit significantly from this shift, as renewable energy sources offer a sustainable and non-depleting alternative to coal and natural gas. To achieve the international goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2°C or 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is crucial. Carbon credits facilitate this transition by incentivizing investment in renewable energy projects and reducing the overall carbon footprint.

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The power segment was valued at USD 61.30 billion in 2019 and showed a gradual increase during the forecast period.

Regional Analysis

Europe is estimated to contribute 84% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period.

Technavio's analysts have elaborately explained the regional trends and drivers that shape the market during the forecast period.

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The European Union (EU) held a significant share of The market in 2023, with countries like the UK and Germany being major buyers. To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the EU established the International Emissions Trading System (ETS) in 2005, which sets the cost of CO2 emissions

The cost of UK ETS carbon permits (UKAs) was around 100 GBP in February 2023, but prices have fallen considerably since then. Prices on January 16, 2025 were just 32.57 GBP, down 11 percent from the same date the previous year. Formerly part of the EU ETS, the UK launched its own cap-and-trade system in 2021 following Brexit. Why has the UK’s carbon price fallen? Several factors have contributed to falling UK carbon prices, including mild winter weather and reduced power demand, as well as a surplus of carbon allowances on the market. While prices have recovered marginally from the record lows, they remain markedly below carbon prices on the EU ETS. The low cost of UK carbon permits has raised concerns that it could deter investment in renewable energy. Future of UK ETS The UK ETS covers emissions from domestic aviation and the industry and power sectors, amounting to some 30 percent of the country’s annual GHG emissions. There are plans to expand the system over the coming years to cover CO₂ venting by the upstream oil and gas sector, domestic maritime emissions, and energy from waste and waste incineration. The UK is also looking to introduce a carbon border adjustment mechanism, which would place a carbon price on certain emissions-intensive industrial goods imported to the UK.

Prices for EU Carbon Permits including live quotes, historical charts and news. EU Carbon Permits was last updated by Trading Economics this March 27 of 2025.

China launched its national emissions trading system (ETS) in 2021, becoming the world's largest carbon market by emissions coverage. As of April 2024, carbon prices of China's national ETS hovered around 12.5 USD/tCO₂e. The China national ETS builds on the seven pilot projects that have been implemented in seven cities and provinces across the country. These pilot ETS will continue to operate alongside the national ETS, covering emissions not yet included in the national system.

Carbon prices across multiple emissions trading systems worldwide are expected to increase during the period of 2026 to 2030, compared to 2022 to 2026. The average EU ETS carbon price is expected to be 84.4 euros per metric ton of CO₂ during the period 2022 to 2025, but is projected to rise to almost 100 euros per metric ton of CO₂ during the period of 2026 to 2030, according to a survey of International Emissions Trading Association members. EU ETS carbon pricing broke the 90 euros per metric ton of CO₂ barrier in February 2022, and in February 2023 it surpassed 100 euros per metric ton of CO₂.

European Union Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) carbon allowances are estimated to average 65 euros per metric ton of carbon dioxide (tCO₂e) in 2024. This figure is forecast to more than double by the end of the decade to almost 150 euros/tCO₂e, before reaching nearly 200 euros/tCO₂e by 2035. EU-ETS carbon prices surpassed the 100 euros per metric ton threshold for the first time in February 2023.

The average price of voluntary carbon market (VCM) credits decreased by 11 percent in 2023, to 6.53 U.S. dollars per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent. The market value of the VCM totaled just over 700 million U.S. dollars that year.

The global carbon tax market is experiencing robust growth, driven by increasing global awareness of climate change and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Governments worldwide are implementing carbon pricing mechanisms, including carbon taxes, to incentivize businesses and individuals to adopt cleaner technologies and practices. This market is projected to reach a significant size, estimated at $150 billion in 2025, based on current market trends and adoption rates. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the period 2025-2033 is estimated to be 8%, reflecting the expected intensification of climate policies and technological advancements in carbon capture and emission reduction. Key segments driving growth include carbon dioxide taxes in the industrial sector, followed by transportation and agriculture. The market is geographically diverse, with significant contributions from North America and Europe, though the Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to show accelerated growth due to rapid industrialization and increasing government regulations. While the implementation of effective carbon tax systems faces challenges such as economic impact on certain industries and the complexity of cross-border regulations, the long-term trajectory points toward consistent growth due to increasing international cooperation on climate action and evolving technological solutions for carbon emission mitigation. The leading revenue generators in the carbon tax market are governmental tax agencies like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Canada Revenue Agency, and similar entities across the globe. These agencies play a crucial role in the implementation and enforcement of carbon tax policies, shaping market dynamics. The market's future trajectory will be significantly influenced by evolving international agreements, technological advancements in renewable energy, and the evolving geopolitical landscape, all of which have the potential to accelerate or decelerate the rate of carbon tax adoption and enforcement globally. Further research into specific regional implementations and economic impacts is needed to refine these projections and to offer a more nuanced analysis for specific market segments. However, the overarching trend remains clear: significant expansion of the carbon tax market is anticipated for the foreseeable future.

The average selling price of a metric ton of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) varies greatly by method. In 2023, the average price for CDR by Direct Ocean Removal (DOC) was roughly 1,402 U.S. dollars per metric ton, a 42 percent increase from the previous year. In comparison, the average price for Direct Air Capture (DAC) fell by almost 43 percent in 2023, to 715 U.S. dollars per metric ton of carbon removal.

All-Transactions House Price Index for Carbon County, MT was 343.51000 Index 2000=100 in January of 2024, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, All-Transactions House Price Index for Carbon County, MT reached a record high of 343.51000 in January of 2024 and a record low of 62.59000 in January of 1993. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for All-Transactions House Price Index for Carbon County, MT - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

Nature-based climate solutions are a vital component of many climate mitigation strategies, including California's, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Most carbon offsets in California's cap-and-trade program come from improved forest management projects (IFMs). Since 2012, various landowners have set up IFMs following the California Air Resources Board's IFM protocol. As many of these projects approach their tenth year, we now have the opportunity to assess their effectiveness, identify best practices, and suggest improvements toward future protocol revisions. In this study, we used remote sensing-based datasets to evaluate the carbon trends and harvest histories of 37 IFMs in California. Despite some current limitations and biases, these datasets can be used to quantify carbon accumulation and harvest rates in offset project lands relative to nearby similar "control" lands before and after the projects began. Five lines of evidence suggest that the carbon accumulated in offset projects to date has generally not been additional to what might have otherwise occurred: (1) most forests in northwestern California have been accumulating carbon since at least the mid-1980s and continue to accumulate carbon, whether enrolled in offset projects or not; (2) harvest rates were high in large timber company project lands before IFM initiation, suggesting they are earning carbon credits for forests in recovery; (3) projects are often located on lands with higher densities of low-timber-value species; (4) carbon accumulation rates have not yet increased on lands that enroll as offset projects, relative to their pre-enrollment levels; and (5) harvest rates have not decreased on most project lands since offset project initiation. These patterns suggest that the current protocol should be improved to robustly measure and reward additionality. In general, our framework of geospatial analyses offers an important and independent means to evaluate the effectiveness of the carbon offsets program, especially as these data products continue improving and as offsets receive attention as a climate mitigation strategy.

This dataset provides values for CO2 EMISSIONS reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The value of the global carbon market increased two percent in 2023, to record high of 881 billion euros (949 billion U.S. dollars). The European Union Emission Trading System is the largest carbon market based on value, accounting for roughly 87 percent of the global market size in 2023. Carbon trading is the purchase and sale of credits that allow a company or entity, such as a power plant, to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide.

As the country with the largest CO2 emissions in the world, the Chinese government has put forward clear goals of hitting peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutralization by 2060. Thus, China started piloting carbon emission trading in 2013, and in July 2021 China opened national carbon trading, which is the largest carbon market in the world (China Launches World, 2021). Therefore, it is very important for China to study the role and mechanism of carbon trading at present. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of China’s carbon market pilot, this paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in mainland China from 2008 to 2019 to conduct an empirical study on carbon emission reduction and the economic effects in China’s pilot provinces through a Time-varying Differences-in-Differences method model. The results show that the implementation of a carbon trading policy can significantly inhibit carbon emissions and promote economic growth. At the same time, this paper further analyzes the emission reduction mechanism of the carbon emissions trading policy through the intermediary effect test and finds that the policy mainly realizes carbon emission reduction by changing the energy consumption structure, promoting low-carbon innovation, and upgrading the industrial structure. In addition, innovative research has found the impact of a carbon price signal and marketization on the emission reduction effect of the carbon market. Finally, targeted suggestions are put forward.

The land sector is an important part of Australia’s national emissions response, in 2020 contributing over 80% of the currently contracted abatement under the ERF, and delivering 11.0 Mt CO2-e-1 yr-1. There is therefore significant interest in understanding the future abatement potential of the land sector, beyond abatement that has already been committed. The aim of this project was to undertake data analysis and associated spatial modelling to estimate the potential future supply of offsets from land sector carbon farming within the current suite of ERF methodologies, under different carbon price scenarios. The analyses involved first calculating the ‘technically feasible’ abatement, i.e. abatement that is constrained by biological, edaphic, and climatic factors, as well as limitations imposed by the legal requirements of the methodologies. The second step involved the application of economic modelling to investigate the extent to which the technically feasible abatement may be economically viable given profitability of the current land use, project costs, and carbon price. While the analyses identified abatement that is technically and economically constrained, they excluded a range of non-economic factors that together ultimately determine market participation, such as social barriers to adoption, or technological limitations that may prevent immediate uptake. The reported abatement estimates therefore reflect economically constrained ‘theoretical’ maximum potentials, and should not be interpreted as predictions of future abatement activity in the land sector. This collection provides the summarised results from these analyses, as reported in Chapter 4 of Roxburgh et al. (2020)

Carbon emissions trading policies play a crucial role in facilitating the transition to high-end products within high-carbon enterprises. Nevertheless, current empirical analyses of the carbon emissions trading market exhibit a lack of precision and are susceptible to bias in their findings. Limited research has been conducted on the influence of product quality as a potential constraint on the impact of carbon trading on product bargaining power. This study presents a double-difference model utilizing data on emission-control enterprises in China’s carbon market to examine the influence of the carbon emissions trading mechanism on the bargaining power of high-carbon products. Empirical analysis is conducted using financial data from listed companies in China spanning the years 2010 to 2020. The findings indicate that the implementation of carbon emissions trading policies has a dampening impact on the product bargaining power of high-carbon enterprises. Moreover, carbon emissions trading policies have heterogeneous effects on the product bargaining power of high-carbon firms with different life cycles, with mature high-carbon firms receiving a boost and declining high-carbon firms receiving a dampening effect. Mechanism test finds that the incomplete transmission effect of cost shocks resulting from carbon emissions trading policies has negatively affect the product bargaining power of high-carbon enterprises. Further research finds that product quality is a key factor in determining the effect of the carbon emissions trading policy, and that the impact of the carbon emissions trading policy on the bargaining power of products of high-carbon firms takes on a "U" shape due to product quality. Once the product quality exceeds the bottleneck value of 0.5956, the policy significantly increases the bargaining power of products. The study confirms that the establishment of carbon markets can effectively increase the bargaining power of superior products. These results offer a comprehensive theoretical and practical foundation for nations to advance the development of carbon markets and facilitate the achievement of sustainable development by high-carbon enterprises.