13 March 2013: Government officials from over 30 countries have gathered for the Fifth Partnership Assembly Meeting (PA5) of the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) to exchange ideas, experiences and plans on domestic emission trading, carbon taxes, and other market-based mechanisms for mitigating climate change.

The meeting, held at World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C., US, from 11-13 March 2013, emphasized the challenges that come with the bottom-up emergence of independent emission trading schemes around the world. Currently, some 35 countries, 18 sub-national jurisdictions in the US and Canada, and seven cities and provinces in China either have, or plan to soon have, emission trading schemes in operation.

Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank, welcomed the trend, yet cautioned that “at some point the world will need the supporting infrastructure to ensure exchangeability of carbon assets.”

Specific topics covered in the meeting included Viet Nam’s Green Growth Strategy, Japan’s Joint Credit Mechanism, China’s final PMR market readiness proposal, and the status of the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

Established in 2010, the PMR provides technical and financial support for the design and implementation of market-based mechanisms for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation in developing and emerging countries. The World Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit provides secretariat services to the PMR, and works alongside the World Bank’s operational units to deliver technical assistance to countries as they implement their PMR activities. [World Bank Press Release] [Climate Finance Options PMR Website] [PMR Website] [PMR’s PA5 Website]