11 Nations Including EU, China Join Brazil’s COP30 Carbon Market Coalition

PVTIME – At the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, 11 economies, including the EU, China, the UK, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Mexico, Zambia and Oman, have officially joined the Brazil-led Open Coalition on Compliance Carbon Markets. As confirmed on the host website of COP30 and in a joint statement from the European Commission, the initiative seeks to establish a cross-border cooperation framework that aligns national carbon pricing mechanisms, emissions trading systems (ETS) and related policies, creating a global compliance carbon market network that is “interoperable, transparent and credible”.

Operating on a fully voluntary basis, the coalition is open exclusively to interested countries and will remain receptive to new members following its initial formation. Christina Reis, Brazil’s Deputy Minister of Sustainable Economic Development at the Ministry of Finance, outlined the coalition’s core aim as accelerating national decarbonisation and advancing the Paris Agreement. She noted that global collaboration can drastically reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the climate crisis and greenhouse gas impacts while protecting the planet. She emphasised the initiative’s comprehensive scope, which extends beyond environmental action, and explained that it will bring new technologies and innovative decarbonisation solutions, foster best-practice sharing among members, set new production standards that prioritise low-carbon goods, and create competitive advantages in trade and investment. The ultimate result of the initiative will be job growth and reduced inequality.

Dr. Catherine Wolfram, a member of COP30’s Presidency Committee, emphasised the significance of carbon pricing as a pivotal decarbonisation instrument, underscoring its capacity to empower businesses, consumers, investors and all stakeholders to make decisions that reflect emission costs, thereby incentivising low-carbon choices. The coalition also incorporates a revenue redistribution mechanism, recognising that nations’ contributions to global emissions and decarbonisation goals vary based on economic size, territory, population and production activity types. A portion of revenues from decarbonization quota allocations will be channelled through “revenue recycling” to ensure a just transition, with the aim of reducing inequalities between and within participating countries.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has publicly endorsed the initiative, emphasising that carbon pricing is a fundamental tool for reducing emissions. She has also expressed the EU’s commitment to collaborating with Brazil and like-minded allies to advance global carbon markets, ensuring that carbon has a tangible price and that emissions are effectively constrained. The group, which consists of 11 members, includes established carbon market leaders such as the EU and the UK, as well as emerging economy representatives including China, Chile and Zambia. This reflects a trend of “bridging cooperation” between developed and developing nations in carbon market governance.

The EU emphasises the coalition’s role in translating Article 6 of the Paris Agreement into a practical market framework, linking regional ETS, national carbon taxes and voluntary carbon markets (VCM) to form a “multi-layered mutual recognition” global emission reduction system. The delegation from China has emphasised the importance of integrating emission reduction and development objectives into carbon market initiatives. They have also underscored the need to facilitate enhanced financial access and technical cooperation for developing nations.