At the COP30 Leaders Summit in Belém on November 7, heads of state agreed to establish a new initiative on carbon market integration. This political signal is a major step toward multilateral coordination on carbon pricing and international trade. It includes Brazil, China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Mexico, Chile, Canada, Zambia, and Armenia, accounting for roughly 40 percent of global emissions. 

Signatories intend to work “expeditiously” to establish the Open Coalition on Compliance Carbon Markets – a forum for discussing experiences and sharing lessons on carbon pricing, carbon accounting, offsets, and verification systems. “The Open Coalition will focus on climate action and enable progress by providing a framework in which members would advance possibilities of coordination on development and enhancement of compliance carbon markets,” the Declaration reads. The Open Coalition “will explore options to promote interoperability of compliance carbon markets in the long term.”  

The Global Climate Policy Program (GCPP) at Harvard and MIT played a catalytic role in making this possible: Catherine Wolfram, serving on the ad hoc council of economists advising the COP30 President, spearheaded a detailed report shaping the concept with a global expert working group, drawing from developed and developing countries including the world’s largest emitters. Wolfram presented the concept at an official side event hosted by the government of Brazil on the margins of the Financing for Development Conference in June. GCPP Faculty Co-leads Joseph Aldy and Dustin Tingley as well as Salata Climate Action Fellow Marcelo Medeiros served on the GCPP Climate Coalitions Working Group and contributed to the report. GCPP Director Arathi Rao oversaw the initiative.   

“This declaration marks an important first step,” said Rao, who co-authored an explainer detailing GCPP’s findings for the Harvard Climate Blog. “It sends a clear political signal that countries are serious about aligning compliance carbon markets. Brazil’s diplomatic leadership made this possible, bringing many major emitters together to shape the next phase of global climate policy.”

Speaking at Harvard Climate Action Week in September, Cristina Fróes de Borja Reis, deputy secretary for sustainable economic development for the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, foreshadowed this declaration. “Our intent in COP Belem is to announce the coalition,” she said, describing how the “coalition will have a magnetic effect in economic, political, environmental and climate dimensions that will benefit all.”

For media inquires, contact: david_trilling@harvard.edu