As a major source and contributor of carbon emissions globally, the construction industry faces challenges in achieving its carbon emission reduction targets. Carbon trading has been established to be a reasonable aid in greenhouse gas mitigation. Current carbon trading systems were originally not developed for the construction industry, and carbon trading system for the construction industry is lacking. The aim of this study is to present the highest level framework of a carbon trading system for the construction industry using systems theory. Systematic literature review methodology was adopted to obtain documents from Scopus which were then synthesized. From the systems theory lens, the carbon trading system for the construction industry is developed comprising input, transformed through process leading to output. Feedback between the output and input is comprised in the system. This study is significant and contributes to the built environment’s climate change mitigation agenda.