This report was prepared by the Tax Policy and Statistics division of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. It is published as part of the OECD series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation (CPET), which earlier included the first iteration of this report, Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Turning Climate Targets into Climate Action, and Effective Carbon Rates 2023, which focused on emissions trading systems (ETSs) and included an in-depth analysis of the relevant free allocation and price stability mechanisms. This report, Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, now covers 79 countries, reflecting broader coverage, and tracks the evolution of carbon and energy pricing instruments between 2021 and 2023.
The report and underlying database provide a comprehensive stocktake of effective carbon and energy rates. Specifically, they track and describe trends in carbon taxes, emissions trading systems (ETSs), fuel excise taxes and their associated emission bases, and the resulting indicator: Effective Carbon Rates (ECRs). They also track and describe electricity excise taxes and the abovementioned policies and their associated energy bases in the Effective Energy Rates (EERs) indicator. In addition, the report captures negative rates through fossil fuel and electricity subsidies that can reduce the price signal of carbon and energy pricing illustrated, resulting in the additional indicators of the Net Effective Carbon Rate (Net ECRs) and Net Effective Energy Rates (Net EERs) that altogether form the basis for the Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation (CPET) database. The report uses the CPET database to analyse the latest trends and developments in carbon pricing and energy taxation policy.
The project was led by Jacob Smith under the guidance of Assia Elgouacem and the overall responsibility of Kurt Van Dender. The report was drafted by Jacob Smith, Insa Handschuch and Lotta Hambrecht with critical inputs from Konstantinos Theodoropoulos, Mark Mateo and Stéphane Buydens.
The CPET database design and maintenance are coordinated by Konstantinos Theodoropoulos. Database updates were conducted by Konstantinos Theodoropoulos, Astrid Tricaud, Insa Handschuch, Nathan Ducrocq, Lotta Hambrecht, Jacob Smith and Tina Aubrun. Information on ETSs from 2022 were from the Effective Carbon Rates 2023 database, updated by Anasuya Raj and Konstantinos Theodoropoulos.
The integration of selected fossil fuel support measures from the OECD Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels into the Taxing Energy Use and Effective Carbon Rates database is the result of a collaboration with Dylan Bourny and the Data and Modelling Division in the OECD’s Trade and Agriculture Directorate.
The authors would like the thank the large team of OECD colleagues that assisted with feedback and data collection at different stages of the production of the report, including but not limited to Anasuya Raj and Jonas Teusch.
The OECD is grateful to the Kingdom of Belgium Federal Public Service, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation for a voluntary contribution that has supported this work.