Realized is a method for restoring the activity of a catalyst for producing a carbonate ester by a simple technique with no use of a complicated step such as calcining or the like to allow the catalyst to be reusable, and a method for producing a carbonate ester at a high yield by use of the catalyst thus regenerated. The above-described problem has been solved by a method for regenerating a catalyst containing CeO2, the catalyst being usable for a carbonate ester generation reaction of generating a carbonate ester from carbon dioxide and an alcohol, the method comprising (a) a separation step of separating the catalyst as a crude catalyst from a reaction solution of carbon dioxide and the alcohol; and (b) a catalyst processing step of washing the crude catalyst with a washing alcohol to provide a purified catalyst.