The EU is making a fresh push for global carbon pricing after working with a series of countries to establish emissions trading schemes, ahead of the looming introduction of its contentious carbon border tax from the new year.

The European Commission’s international carbon pricing task force has collaborated with more than 40 countries in the past year and is encouraging the biggest polluters with nascent carbon markets, such as China and India, to make them more effective.

At least three countries have put in place legislation to establish an emissions trading system (ETS) which will sell allowances to polluters. Brazil and Turkey have approved laws for carbon markets in the past year, while Japan has moved from a voluntary to a mandatory scheme.