ADB Launches Legal Blueprint to Guide Law and Policymakers on Carbon Markets
In July 2025, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) published the seminal Legal Blueprint for Developing and Regulating Carbon Markets to serve as a valuable and timely knowledge resource for law and policymakers in designing national carbon market laws and regulations.
Developed under ADB’s Law and Policy Reform (LPR) Program, the legal blueprint focuses on the supply side—what countries hosting carbon crediting projects need to regulate to provide legal clarity to market participants and to safeguard social and environmental integrity, thereby ensuring the generation of high-quality carbon credits.
It is a comprehensive knowledge resource covering situations where a country is looking to establish a domestic carbon crediting scheme and/or leverage the existing architecture of international carbon markets. It also covers Article 6 requirements, which can be codified in the national legal and regulatory framework. This legal blueprint is structured for flexibility and tailored application based on national context.
By promoting legal clarity, social and environmental integrity, and alignment with international standards, it fosters an enabling environment to attract private investment and supports regulatory consistency across regions.
This legal blueprint is part of ADB's broader support for developing high-integrity, robust carbon markets that can drive advanced technologies and sustainability solutions toward inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth across Asia and the Pacific.
Additionally, ADB LPR and the ADB Institute recently concluded the Carbon Markets Webinar Series from May to August 2025. The webinar series is part of ADB's capacity building program to provide policymakers and other stakeholders with a deep dive on key topics identified by participants who attended the ADB Workshop on Policy Architecture for High Integrity Carbon Markets under the Paris Agreement held last December 2024. The webinar recordings, as well as session materials and other resources, are available here.