Across two days of workshops, plenaries, and breakout sessions, participants examined the structural pressures, reform debates, and emerging opportunities shaping both voluntary and compliance markets — from the EU ETS and ETS2 to Article 6, CORSIA, and CBAM.
Several clear themes emerged. Integrity and quality remain the central challenge for the voluntary carbon market, with reputational risk and the absence of harmonised standards continuing to constrain corporate uptake. In compliance markets, the tension between strong long-term fundamentals and near-term political uncertainty is weighing on prices — while the EU ETS2, set to cover 80% of European emissions, raises urgent questions around consumer impact and the adequacy of current reform proposals. Meanwhile, 41 emissions trading systems now cover 26% of global emissions, a signal that the architecture of carbon pricing is broadening — even as the governance, legal, and technical challenges of linking those systems remain formidable.
Against this backdrop, the Summit reinforced a conviction that runs through every session: markets alone are insufficient. Regulatory clarity, government-backed demand signals, and coordinated industry advocacy are the conditions under which carbon markets can scale to meet the ambition of the Paris Agreement. Europe, as the dominant force in global carbon market turnover, carries particular responsibility — and particular opportunity — in forging what one panel called the new carbon order.
