2026 carbon market and climate events calendar

The minute: The main carbon market and climate events in 2026, in one place, since today every organization keeps its own calendar isolated on its own site.

Why it matters: Carbon market rules change fast, and the decisions made at these events (new methodologies, compliance deadlines, integrity standards) affect pricing, project eligibility and corporate climate claims worldwide. Missing a single regulatory update announced at COP or Carbon Forward can mean months of rework on offset portfolios or compliance filings.

Download calendar (.ics)

How to actually use this calendar

A calendar is only useful if it feeds into a workflow. For compliance teams, sustainability officers or carbon traders planning their year around these events, the practical sequence is:

1. Map your regulatory exposure first. Identify which compliance schemes your organization reports under (EU ETS, UK ETS, CORSIA, California cap-and-trade, or Brazil’s SBCE, among others). Each scheme has its own reporting and surrender deadlines, and those deadlines determine which events are mandatory for your team and which are optional.
2. Register early for the events that match your exposure. Climate Week NYC and COP side events often fill months in advance. Carbon Forward sessions on compliance markets tend to sell out before voluntary market sessions do.
3. Assign clear takeaways per event. Before each conference, define the two or three open questions your organization needs answered. After the event, circulate a written debrief within one week. Without this step, conference attendance becomes tourism.
4. Sync the .ics file above into your team calendar so that travel booking, internal deadlines and board reporting do not collide with event dates.

What each event decides in practice

Climate Week NYC

Organized by the Climate Group and held alongside the UN General Assembly, Climate Week NYC is where corporates, investors and NGOs announce net-zero commitments, updated transition plans and new voluntary market initiatives. It is not a regulatory venue, but announcements made here often set the political tone for COP negotiations two months later. In recent years, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) have used Climate Week to release updated guidance on Core Carbon Principles and corporate claims.

Carbon Forward Expo London

Carbon Forward is the largest dedicated carbon trading conference. The London edition focuses on European compliance markets (EU ETS and UK ETS) as well as voluntary credit pricing and methodology updates. For traders, this is the event where forward curve expectations, registry data and new project pipeline information are most concentrated. The regional editions in the Middle East and Asia (Singapore) cover jurisdictional markets specific to those regions, so the content does not repeat.

COP31 in Antalya

COP31 follows COP30, which was held in Belém, Brazil. For carbon markets, the central agenda item remains the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Article 6.2 governs bilateral transfers of mitigation outcomes between countries (known as ITMOs, or internationally transferred mitigation outcomes). Article 6.4 establishes a centralized crediting mechanism supervised by the UN, intended to replace the old Clean Development Mechanism. Both mechanisms were agreed in principle at COP26 in Glasgow, but operational details (methodologies, registry interoperability, share of proceeds for adaptation) have been negotiated incrementally at each COP since. What COP31 decides on these rules will directly determine which carbon credits are eligible for use under CORSIA (the aviation sector’s offset scheme) and which credits countries can count toward their Nationally Determined Contributions.

Brazil: the domestic carbon market and what changes for operators

Brazil enacted its regulated carbon market law (Lei 15.042) in December 2024, creating the SBCE (Sistema Brasileiro de Comércio de Emissões, or Brazilian Emissions Trading System). The system is overseen by the Ministry of Environment (MMA) and an interministerial committee (CIM). Under the law, facilities that emit above a defined annual threshold of greenhouse gases will be required to monitor, report and eventually surrender allowances or offsets.

The practical impact for operators in Brazil is threefold. First, companies covered by the SBCE will need to install or upgrade emissions monitoring systems that meet MMA specifications, which are still being detailed through regulation. Second, the SBCE will accept certain offset credits, but the list of eligible methodologies and registries has not been finalized, so project developers cannot yet confirm whether their existing voluntary credits will qualify. Third, the timeline for the first compliance cycle depends on implementing decrees that are expected during 2025 and 2026, meaning the calendar above (especially COP31 and Carbon Forward) is where updates on Brazil’s regulatory timeline are most likely to surface.

For multinational companies operating in Brazil and in EU ETS jurisdictions simultaneously, the key question is whether SBCE allowances and EU ETS allowances will ever be mutually recognized under Article 6.2 bilateral agreements. No such agreement exists today.

The most common mistake

The most frequent error organizations make with carbon market calendars is treating event attendance as a substitute for regulatory tracking. Conferences present curated summaries, but regulatory text (implementing acts, methodology approvals, registry rules) is published on separate timelines by separate bodies: the European Commission for EU ETS, ICAO for CORSIA, the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body for UN credits, and MMA for Brazil’s SBCE. Organizations that rely solely on conference takeaways often discover rule changes weeks after they take effect, when compliance deadlines have already passed or credit eligibility windows have closed.

What is still unresolved

Three open questions will shape carbon markets through the rest of 2026 and into 2027:

• Article 6.4 methodologies: The Supervisory Body has been developing methodologies for the new UN crediting mechanism, but adoption has been slower than expected. Until methodologies are finalized and a functional registry is operational, the mechanism cannot issue credits.
• Voluntary market integrity standards: The ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles label which credits meet a quality threshold, but not all major registries have completed the assessment process. Until labeling is comprehensive, buyers face uncertainty about which credits will retain value.
• Brazil’s SBCE implementation timeline: The law exists, but the implementing regulations that define covered sectors, thresholds, monitoring protocols and offset eligibility are still being drafted. The first compliance obligations cannot begin until these regulations are published.

Primary sources: About Climate Week NYC (Climate Group, 2026); Carbon Forward Expo London 2026 (Carbon Forward, 2026); UN Climate Change Conference COP31, Antalya (UNFCCC, 2026); Law 15,042 of 11 December 2024, creating the SBCE (Planalto, 2024); Paris Agreement, official text (United Nations Treaty Collection, 2015).