Why this exists
Education and awareness, not advocacy
Climate legislation is one of the most consequential — and least understood — forces shaping our planet's future. Press releases announce ambitions. Laws are what governments actually commit to. Canopy Atlas exists to make the gap between those two things visible. When people can see what their governments have signed into law, they are better equipped to ask whether those laws are being followed — and what still needs to happen.
This is a free, non-commercial educational tool. It is not affiliated with any government, lobbying group, or political organisation, and it does not take positions on climate policy. All entries link directly to the original legislation so you can read the source yourself.
Scale of coverage
5,000+
Laws exist globally
The Grantham Research Institute estimates over 5,000 climate-related laws and policies are in force globally — across every country that signed the Paris Agreement. Canopy Atlas tracks a curated subset of the most significant national, subnational, and international laws, with a particular focus on forests, carbon, and biodiversity. We are transparent about what we don't yet cover.
What this database covers well
National framework laws are the foundation of the database. These are the big, headline pieces of legislation — the UK's Climate Change Act 2008, Germany's Federal Climate Action Act, New Zealand's Zero Carbon Act, South Korea's Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality — that set legally binding emissions targets, establish independent advisory bodies, and require governments to produce regular carbon budgets. The database is strongest here because these laws are publicly prominent and well-documented.
Reforestation mandates are the second major category. These range from laws that require commercial loggers to replant within two years of a harvest (Oregon, Sweden, Finland, Austria) to the world's largest afforestation programmes — Pakistan's 10 Billion Tree Tsunami, Ethiopia's Green Legacy Initiative of 20 billion trees, Turkey's 7 billion trees campaign. We also track international financing mechanisms like Norway's NICFI programme, which has committed over $15 billion to tropical forest conservation in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Congo Basin since 2008.
Carbon pricing mechanisms are tracked where they intersect with forests and land use. This includes cap-and-trade systems that allow forest carbon offsets as compliance credits — California, Quebec (linked to California), Washington State, the EU Emissions Trading System — as well as carbon taxes in Finland, Sweden, South Africa, Singapore, Switzerland, and British Columbia. REDD+ frameworks, which pay developing countries for verified reductions in deforestation, are documented for Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Gabon, Zambia, and others.
Deforestation bans and moratoriums cover the hard-law end of forest protection: Brazil's Forest Code requiring landowners to keep 20–80% of land as native vegetation depending on biome; Indonesia's peatland conversion moratorium; the DRC's reinstated logging moratorium; Norway's domestic old-growth forest protection. These are among the laws with the most direct and measurable effect on forest cover.
Rights-based and constitutional laws form a distinct and growing category. Ecuador's 2008 constitution was the first in the world to give nature enforceable legal rights — rights that have since been upheld in court, including the Vilcabamba River ruling. Bolivia's 2010 Law of the Rights of Mother Earth extends legal personhood to the entire natural world. These are not symbolic: they create legal standing for communities and NGOs to challenge development projects in court.
International pledges — Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, the Glasgow Forest Pledge, bilateral REDD+ agreements — are tracked alongside the domestic laws that are supposed to implement them. Seeing the pledge alongside the law (or the absence of one) is central to what this tool is for.
What this database does not yet cover
No database is complete, and honesty about gaps is part of the educational mission. These are the most significant categories currently absent or underrepresented:
Sector-specific legislation
The database captures framework laws well but almost none of the implementing sectoral legislation — building energy codes, aviation emissions rules, shipping decarbonisation mandates, agricultural methane laws, or industrial heat standards. The EU's Fit for 55 package alone contains over a dozen significant laws (revised ETS, CBAM, Energy Efficiency Directive, Buildings Directive, methane regulation) none of which appear as individual entries.
Repealed and superseded laws
Historically important laws that were later scrapped tell a crucial part of the story. Australia's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was designed to be world-leading and was repealed in 2014 before it took effect. Australia's carbon tax, also repealed in 2014, was the first in the Southern Hemisphere. The "inactive" status field exists in our data model but is rarely used — this is a gap we are actively working to fill.
Subnational depth
The US has all 50 states, Australia has 6 states, Canada has 4 of 10 provinces, Japan has 1 of 47 prefectures. Brazil's 26 states, India's 28 states, Germany's 16 Länder, and Spain's 17 autonomous communities all have active climate legislation that isn't tracked. São Paulo alone has emissions laws covering more people than most European countries.
Indigenous land rights and community forestry
The evidence is consistent: legally recognised indigenous land tenure is one of the most effective mechanisms for keeping forests standing. Brazil's indigenous land demarcation legislation, Canada's UNDRIP implementation, Peru's community forest rights, and the 22,000 community forest user groups in Nepal collectively protect more forest than many national parks — yet these are largely absent from the database.
Climate litigation and court orders
Court rulings now shape climate policy as directly as legislation. The Dutch Urgenda case (2019) was the first court order requiring a government to cut emissions — it forced the Netherlands to go beyond its own law. Germany's constitutional court ruled in 2021 that the government's climate targets violated the rights of future generations. Montana's Held v. State (2023) established the right to a stable climate under state constitution. None of these appear in the database, though they are as legally binding as any statute.
Small island and Pacific states
The countries with the most urgent climate legislation — Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, the Maldives — are facing existential threat from sea-level rise and have some of the most forward-looking climate frameworks in the world. They are almost entirely absent from this database, which reflects a wider gap in how climate law is documented and surfaced globally.
The enabling vs. implementing gap
This is the biggest structural limitation. The database tracks enabling legislation — the laws that set targets and create institutions — but almost none of the implementing regulations that determine whether those targets are actually met. A country can have a strong Climate Change Act and weak implementing rules. The Atlas would rate it "comprehensive" when the real picture is more complicated. Always read the detailed law cards and their citations before drawing conclusions about a country's actual climate performance.
How coverage ratings work
The coloured dots on the globe reflect the number of laws tracked in our database for that region — not an independent assessment of a country's climate ambition or performance. A country with fewer laws in our database may have strong climate action that we haven't yet documented.
Comprehensive
4 or more tracked laws across multiple categories. Framework legislation exists alongside carbon pricing, reforestation mandates, and biodiversity protection.
Moderate
2–3 tracked laws. A national framework law or carbon pricing mechanism exists, but full sectoral coverage is partial or still developing.
Basic
1 tracked law — a national policy, NDC commitment, or single sector law. A comprehensive legislative framework is still being built.
Monitoring
Paris Agreement signatory with an NDC on record, but no standalone climate or forestry legislation yet documented in our database.
Disclaimer
Canopy Atlas is an independent educational reference tool. Law summaries are written for clarity and may not reflect the full legal text or the most recent amendments — always follow the citation link to the official source. Coverage ratings reflect the number of laws tracked in this database, not an assessment of a country's overall climate ambition, enforcement record, or ecological outcomes. The monthly Law Scanner uses AI-assisted web search and should be treated as a starting point for further research, not a definitive legal record. Nothing in this tool constitutes legal, policy, or investment advice.