The global market managed, over the year 2020, to bill 46.63 billion euros in revenue raised through corporate carbon emission taxes, an increase of almost 18% compared to 2019, the World Bank revealed in a report published this Tuesday.

The financial institution warns, however, that in many regions of the world, carbon taxes remain below the values needed to promote structural changes that meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, ratified by nearly 200 countries in 2015, and which establishes that in the coming years global warming must stay below 2°C, and preferably 1.5°C.

"Most carbon taxes still remain well below the €36 per tonne of carbon range, an essential target for the treaty signed in France to meet its objective," the World Bank report can read.

The European market of carbon permits, where Portugal is included, and which a few weeks ago broke the record of 50 euros per ton of CO2, was the one that suffered the most, with a 30% increase in prices since the second semester of last year.

In 2021, the hunger for regulatory tools to tighten the noose on corporate emissions remains insatiable. So far, there are 64 fiscal or commercial tools worldwide that make entities pay for the carbon they pollute the environment with, up considerably from 58 in 2020, boosting the world's capacity to mitigate emissions to another 21% compared to the previous year.

Currently, the great hope for emissions reduction has its eyes on China, the world's largest carbon market, which earlier this year presented the globe with good news by launching the ET's on CO2 (in this case under the name "China's Emissions Trading Scheme").

Experts believe that this new tax measure from Beijing will cover around 30% of Chinese emissions, about 4 billion tons of CO2, roughly, according to 'South China Morning Post' accounts.