Using markets to reduce emissions and drive growth in the Global South

The Emissions Market Accelerator helps governments design, built and implement markets, and monitor their success.

About Us

The Emissions Market Accelerator provides a custom-built solution to make emissions markets work anywhere, for any pollutant, by supporting governments from design to full operation.

Conventional rules can be costly and difficult to enforce, leading countries to abandon environmental and climate goals in favor of economic growth. Emissions markets provide a flexible, transparent alternative that allows for stronger compliance at a lower cost. Industries continue to profit, economies continue to grow—all while reducing emissions to protect the environment and climate and improve human wellbeing.

Michael Greenstone

Co-Chair, Emissions Market Accelerator; Director, EPIC; Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

“The Emissions Market Accelerator goes where pollution is threatening human wellbeing the most and brings governments the tools they need to simply and effectively balance the goals of economic growth and environmental quality. With a market, they don’t need to choose any longer, regardless of whether their interests are air, greenhouse gas, or water pollution. Our goal is for pollution markets to benefit 1 billion people by 2030."

Esther Duflo

2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; Co-founder and Director, J-PAL; Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, MIT

"Gujarat’s leadership in testing and scaling emissions markets shows how governments in emerging economies can drive large-scale solutions that benefit people, the economy, and the planet. J-PAL is proud to have worked alongside the Gujarat government and EPIC for more than a decade to pilot, evaluate, and scale this innovative approach and now through the Emissions Market Accelerator expand it further across India and other countries."

Bala Srinivasan

Co-Chair, Emissions Market Accelerator

“Countries in the Global South have been laser focused on economic growth, as they should. But that has often come at the expense of environmental quality. We’re working with governments to implement a market approach that proves economic growth and environmental quality can go hand-in-hand."

Shri Devang M. Thaker

Member Secretary, Gujarat Pollution Control Board

“Emissions markets are both innovative and practical, delivering a cleaner environment without hindering growth. With our success, I hope other emerging economies worldwide will follow India’s lead.”

Who We Are

The Emissions Market Accelerator is a partnership between the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). The partners work in collaboration with government entities and stakeholders such as data and trading firms, industrial associations, among others who facilitate the implementation of the markets.

Our Approach

Providing end-to-end technical support, the Emissions Market Accelerator helps regulators and industries establish markets that cap emissions, allocate tradable permits, and enforce compliance through continuous emissions monitoring.

Identifying and engaging with interested governments

Embedded technical assistance and field team

Support regulators in managing and running markets

Proof of Concept

Researchers affiliated with the Emissions Market Accelerator helped the Indian state of Gujarat design and launch the world's first particulate pollution market. The pilot market dramatically raised compliance with the law, sharply reduced pollution, and increased industry profits.

This win-win-win is not new for pollution markets. However, it served as an important proof-of-concept that they can work throughout the world. Before this pilot, pollution markets were seen as a regulatory tool for the U.S., EU, and other rich countries. The evidence from India changed that—spurring the Emissions Market Accelerator team to expand its efforts.

Scaling Up

The Emissions Market Accelerator is working with government partners to launch markets for air, greenhouse gas and water pollution—with the goal to benefit 1 billion people in the Global South by 2030.

The Emissions Market Accelerator team is currently working with government partners in India to set up three cap-and-trade markets, and early-stage conversations with other Indian states and international jurisdictions are underway.

Contact Us

Reach out to us to learn more about our work, the benefits of a market approach, and what it would take to set one up in your area.