Navigating carbon pricing: the G20 experience and Global South prospects

In the context of India’s 2023 G20 Presidency, this report provides an overview of the experience of carbon pricing across the world. It focuses on the benefits of these instruments, the challenges that impede wider adoption, and the plausible solutions that can lead to the faster uptake of these tools by emerging economies. In particular, two sets of issues can slow down the implementation of carbon taxes or emissions trading systems: lack of capacity to design and implement the instruments, and the social impacts of their adoption. The report utilises a review of the current literature, which indicates that the social impacts of existing carbon pricing regimes have largely been overstated and that, where such impacts are evident, there are design elements that can mitigate and reverse any negative social and income effects of the proposed carbon pricing instruments.