Europe’s carbon trading market is stuttering, and its problems could help guide attempts to curb carbon emissions in many other countries.

Recent efforts by the European Commission to bolster its Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) have served only to highlight its weaknesses, further eroding the price of a ton of carbon dioxide emissions permitted under the system. Economists and political scientists say this could help swing the pendulum in favor of carbon taxes in countries, including the United States, that are currently seeking to create their own domestic carbon pricing schemes.