EU CBAM will have ‘coercive effect’

Scheme will punish other trading blocs that do not have a carbon price of a similar level, industry seminar hears

Europe’s upcoming carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will incentivise the bloc’s trading partners, including China, to price carbon in the same way, delegates at an industry seminar heard in Shanghai heard in early November. Proposed last year as part of the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ package to slash emissions, the CBAM seeks to impose carbon costs on imports of some high-carbon goods from outside Europe— including steel, cement, electricity and chemicals. The tariff aims to mitigate the risk of carbon leakage, when industries are drawn from areas with high carbon prices, such as those imposed by the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS), to those without. The CBAM has not been well-received in