International Carbon Action Partnership (icap)

What International Carbon Action Partnership (icap) does

International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) is an international forum and knowledge-sharing partnership established in 2009 to facilitate exchange and sharing of experiences on emissions trading systems (ETS) among governments and public authorities. ICAP is hosted and serviced by adelphi consult GmbH, headquartered at Alt-Moabit 96a in Berlin, Germany, with managing directors Mikael P. Henzler, Sebastian Muschter, and Gerard Solbrig providing operational oversight; Stefano De Clara serves as Head of the ICAP Secretariat, with co-chairmanship shared between Dirk Weinreich (Germany) and Rajinder Sahota (California). The organization's product portfolio centers on an interactive digital toolset — the ETS Map (visualization of global ETS status), Compare ETS (side-by-side system comparison), and Allowance Price Explorer (price tracking and download) — alongside a substantial editorial library. The library includes the annual ICAP Status Report, the nine-part ETS Briefs series (available in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Russian), the Emissions Trading in Practice: Handbook on Design and Implementation co-published with the World Bank, and the Carbon Market Conversations podcast.

ICAP serves national and subnational governments and public authorities implementing or considering ETS, with explicit membership spanning EU jurisdictions, the UK, China, California, Québec, New Zealand, and Korea; secondary audiences include policymakers, researchers and academia, and industry experts. The business model is non-commercial: ICAP does not sell products or services and provides all publications and tools free of charge. Funding flows through membership contributions from participating jurisdictions and institutional support from partners including the World Bank's Partnership for Market Readiness, the Inter-American Development Bank, IETA, and GIZ under the International Climate Initiative (IKI). Go-to-market is event-driven, anchored on public conferences, workshops, ETS training courses for aspirant jurisdictions, and the annual Status Report as the flagship publication. Multi-channel distribution spans the icapcarbonaction.com website, a quarterly newsletter (Chinese, English, Spanish), LinkedIn, YouTube (including the podcast), and convening events such as the North America Climate Summit. Revenue is not publicly disclosed and the legal operating entity is the private German GmbH adelphi consult, which acts as ICAP's service provider rather than as a commercial owner.

Name

International Carbon Action Partnership (icap)

Legal name

adelphi consult GmbH

Website

https://icapcarbonaction.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) is a Berlin-based international forum and knowledge-sharing partnership, established in 2009 and serviced by adelphi consult GmbH, that provides governments and public authorities with interactive ETS tools, the annual Status Report, handbooks, and capacity-building programs to support emissions trading system design and implementation worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Kreuzberg

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership Contributions: ICAP operates as an international forum for public authorities and governments working on emissions trading. The organization appears to be funded through membership contributions from participating jurisdictions and possibly institutional support.
2. Knowledge Products and Publications: ICAP produces publications including the annual Status Report, papers, and handbooks that are distributed free of charge as part of their knowledge-sharing mission.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ICAP is an international forum that facilitates the exchange and sharing of experiences on emissions trading among governments and public authorities. Its core offerings include interactive analytical tools (ETS Map, Compare ETS, Allowance Price Explorer), the annual ICAP Status Report, ETS Briefs, handbooks, the Carbon Market Conversations podcast, and ETS capacity building training courses for jurisdictions developing or operating emissions trading systems.

Product overview

ICAP is a knowledge-sharing partnership that provides emissions trading systems (ETS) expertise to governments and public authorities. The organization offers a suite of interactive tools (ETS Map, Compare ETS, Allowance Price Explorer) alongside comprehensive publications including the annual ICAP Status Report, ETS Briefs series, and specialized handbooks. Additional offerings include the Carbon Market Conversations podcast, capacity building courses, and public events. The portfolio is focused on knowledge products and analytical tools rather than a software platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ETS Map Interactive visualization tool allowing governments, policymakers, and researchers to access and compare the current status of emissions trading systems worldwide.
• Compare ETS Tool that enables side-by-side comparison of different emissions trading systems for policymakers and analysts evaluating ETS design choices.
• Allowance Price Explorer Tool that tracks, visualizes and allows users to download allowance price developments from emissions trading systems around the world.
• ETS Briefs Series of nine concise briefs providing an overview of core concepts and mechanisms of emissions trading, available in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Russian.
• ICAP Status Report Annual flagship publication providing comprehensive insights on the status and working of emissions trading around the world, including factsheets on every system in operation, under development, and under consideration.
• ICAP Podcast (Carbon Market Conversations) Podcast series featuring discussions on emissions trading topics and carbon market developments for policymakers and carbon market stakeholders.
• Emissions Trading in Practice: Handbook on Design and Implementation Comprehensive handbook co-published with the World Bank providing step-by-step guidance for policymakers on designing and implementing emissions trading systems, available in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
• Capacity Building and Courses ETS training courses and capacity building programs designed to build expertise in aspirant jurisdictions considering or developing emissions trading systems.

Quantifiable outcome

• 38 operational ETSs tracked globally as of 2025
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and strategic.

• World BankcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerICAP and the World Bank's Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) jointly published the ETS Handbook (2nd Edition), combining expertise in emissions trading design and implementation. The partnership also includes joint publications on governance of emissions trading systems and carbon pricing in the power sector.
• adelphi consult GmbHcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partneradelphi consult GmbH serves as the service provider for ICAP, managing the organization from their Berlin office. The managing directors of adelphi (Mikael P. Henzler, Sebastian Muschter, Gerard Solbrig) oversee ICAP operations.
• Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerWith support from IDB, ICAP and IETA published the report on Status and Trends of Compliance and Voluntary Carbon Markets in Latin America.
• IETA (International Emissions Trading Association)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerICAP and IETA collaborated on publications regarding carbon markets in Latin America, combining industry and policy expertise.
• GIZstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerGIZ implemented the Sino-German Cooperation on Emissions Trading Systems project, which facilitated the Chinese translation of the updated ETS Handbook within the framework of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): CDP runs a global disclosure system for environmental data, including carbon pricing and emissions trading exposure reported by companies and cities. While CDP focuses on corporate/city disclosure rather than ETS policy design, it serves an adjacent knowledge-and-data role for the same climate-policy ecosystem.
• BloombergNEF (BNEF): BNEF is a leading commercial provider of carbon market data, analytics, and price tracking that overlaps with ICAP's Allowance Price Explorer and Status Report. BNEF serves a paid commercial audience, whereas ICAP serves governments free, but both function as core reference data sources for the ETS community.
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): UNFCCC is the overarching intergovernmental treaty body that sets the global framework under which ETSs operate, including Article 6 market mechanisms that ICAP directly addresses. UNFCCC is the broader incumbent whose policy architecture ICAP's ETS design guidance ultimately supports.

Direct peers

• International Emissions Trading Association (IETA): IETA is the primary global industry association for businesses participating in carbon markets, with a parallel mission of advancing emissions trading frameworks. ICAP and IETA regularly co-publish (e.g., Latin America carbon markets report) and address overlapping policy and market audiences, making IETA the principal industry-side counterpart to ICAP's public-authority focus.
• World Bank Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR): PMR is the World Bank's flagship capacity-building program for emissions trading and carbon market readiness in developing and emerging economies. ICAP and PMR are direct partners who co-publish the ETS Handbook and jointly serve the same government audience, making PMR the closest operational peer in ETS knowledge and capacity building.

Emerging players

• Climate Action Tracker (CAT): CAT is an independent scientific assessment that tracks government climate action and ETS implementation progress, producing publicly available ratings and reports. CAT's role as an independent evaluator of national ETS commitments is adjacent to ICAP's role as an ETS design and implementation knowledge hub.
• Verra: Verra runs major carbon-credit standards (VCS) and the new Article 6.4 Supervisory Body accreditation, adjacent to but distinct from compliance ETSs that ICAP focuses on. Verra is a peer in carbon market infrastructure with overlapping regulatory and policy engagement with governments.

Others

• adelphi consult GmbH: adelphi consult GmbH is the German sustainability consultancy that hosts and operates ICAP from its Berlin office. While not a peer in the same business, adelphi's climate policy practice is the operational backbone for ICAP and frequently co-delivers related ETS advisory work.
• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): TCFD developed climate-related financial disclosure standards that drive corporate and government engagement with carbon pricing. While TCFD focuses on financial disclosure rather than ETS design, it shapes the demand-side ecosystem that ICAP's jurisdictional members operate within.

Regional players

• GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit): GIZ is Germany's federal development agency, which has implemented carbon pricing and ETS projects in emerging markets (e.g., Sino-German ETS cooperation). GIZ overlaps with ICAP in capacity building for ETS implementation but operates as a bilateral development agency rather than a multilateral forum.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCa4xzGegdt1DcjWWobrPcHg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/icapsecretariat

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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