UK Government is Taking Lead Role in Promoting Spread of Carbon Pricing: Document

The British government has ramped up its promotion of carbon pricing in other countries, according to data obtained by OPIS under a freedom of information request.

The U.K. held just three bilateral meetings in 2022 with officials in a range of countries to discuss putting a price on domestic carbon emissions by setting up their own emissions trading systems, or ETS. It then held 30 meetings over the next three years with representatives of those countries, according to a document obtained by OPIS in February.

The documents also showed that two thirds of the government’s bilateral meetings were with officials from just four countries over a three-year period. U.K. officials held six meetings with Malaysian officials looking to set up an ETS, five meetings with Brazilian representatives, five with Turkish officials and four with representatives of Japan.

The British government also held two virtual meetings related to carbon pricing with officials in Ukraine, which plans to implement its own ETS by 2031.

The government denied OPIS’s request for meeting notes with countries considering carbon pricing, citing exemptions to Freedom-of-Information laws related to the disclosure of information that could “adversely affect international relations, such as the U.K.’s with foreign states and international organizations.”

Instead, the government provided presentations given to some countries and a list of those 33 meetings, including information related to dates and whether the meetings were held virtually or in person.

The U.K. has a long experience in carbon pricing and was part of the European Union’s ETS created in 2005 before it established its own program in 2021 after Britain left the European Union.

The implementation of the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism this year and the scheduled introduction of U.K.’s CBAM next year have led countries that export industrial products to those jurisdictions to enact their own emissions trading systems.

The EU CBAM is gradually applying the price paid by domestic producers onto imports from other countries across several sectors including steel, cement, iron, aluminum, electricity, hydrogen and fertilizers. If countries exporting in those sectors to the EU implement their own carbon prices, that cost can be deducted from the CBAM levy.

As a result, countries setting up their own ETS systems can also generate revenue from domestic carbon levies which would otherwise be collected by the EU CBAM. Both the EU and the UK have argued that their carbon prices and CBAMs will encourage other countries to set up their own ETS programs.

“As part of our work we engage with stakeholders and support international partners who are actively looking to develop their own carbon pricing and emissions trading schemes,” a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero said this week.

The U.K. is a member of the International Carbon Action Partnership, a global organization connecting ETS programs and the country also supports the Global Carbon Pricing Challenge, an initiative aimed at applying carbon pricing to 60% of global emissions by 2030.

The EU has yet to provide a response to an OPIS freedom of information request about its interactions with nations looking to set up ETS programs and apply carbon prices.

Officials at EU governments administering the EU ETS on behalf of the European Commission have also provided advice to such nations, their responses to an OPIS freedom of information requests showed.

The Dutch government held two meetings with Japanese government officials in 2025 and one with the Indian government last year.

Swedish government officials advised officials in Taiwan, China, on three occasions in 2024 and 2025 and met Indian and Japanese governments on carbon pricing last year, Sweden’s environment department said in response to the OPIS document request.

The following is a list of the U.K. government’s meetings with countries considering ETS programs:

Argentina: May 16, 2024, virtual, and July 25, 2024, in-person.

Malaysia: Jan. 10, 2023, virtual, April 25, 2023, in-person, March 4, 2024, virtual, March 3, 2025, virtual, July 16, 2025, in-person, Oct. 22, 2025, virtual.

The Philippines: April 25, 2023, in-person, July 17, 2025, in-person

Taiwan, China: March 10, 2023, virtual, Feb. 18, 2025, virtual, Nov. 25, 2025, in-person

Brazil: Sept. 26-30, 2022, in-person, Dec. 15, 2023, virtual, April 15, 2024, virtual. Feb. 20, 2025, in-person, Oct. 15, 2025, virtual

India: Sept. 25, 2023, virtual

Japan: Feb. 12, 2022, virtual, Aug. 5, 2024, virtual, April 17, 2025, virtual, June 9, 2025, in-person

Turkey: Aug. 31, 2023, virtual, Dec. 10, 2024, virtual, Feb. 18, 2025, virtual, March 18, 2025, in-person, June 2, 2025, virtual

Ukraine: June 6, 2024, virtual, Dec. 19, 2024, virtual

Vietnam: April 25, 2023, in-person, Nov. 3, 2023, virtual and Dec. 13, 2024, in-person

Reporting by Anthony Lane, alane@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeffrey Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com