Experts say international governments cannot agree on how to regulate global carbon markets.

During the last international climate meeting in Poland, countries failed to agree on how carbon markets should be regulated internationally, partly because of issues around counting emissions reductions twice (i.e in both the country selling and buying).

Despite international consensus on nearly all of the elements of the rulebook regarding the implementation for the 2015 Paris Agreement, the required rules for international carbon markets remain missing.

A group of experts has now addressed the lack of agreement among international climate negotiators regarding the rules for international carbon markets – a key factor in successfully achieving the climate goals outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The authors outline ways to resolve the disagreement surrounding the double counting of emission reductions in the carbon market.

They argue that international carbon markets (like the emissions trading scheme) should be linked to individual countries' Paris Agreement targets, so that when a country selling emission reductions adds to their emission account, the country buying the units makes a subtraction.

They say that in order for carbon markets to be taken seriously, common international accounting rules need to be agreed upon - including what time scale they can be counted over - at the next meeting, which takes place in Chile this December.