“If we all move in the direction of decarbonising our economy, of moving towards net zero, then we will all need to take comparable measures”, said European Commission Vice-President in charge of the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, on Wednesday 10 November, during a speech at the 26th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26).
The European initiative of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has, for the time being, been received coldly by the EU’s trading partners. They argue that they will be put at a significant disadvantage by the additional import costs of the CBAM. Also on 2 November, at the COP26, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, warned against a form of protectionism (see EUROPE 12826/8).
In the European Parliament, the project has been welcomed. However, its MEPs state that the revenue from the CBAM certificates should not only be paid into the EU budget.
“The revenues must be used for climate action. We need to use the revenues to make sure that the least developed countries can take part in the transition and be part of the global trading system”, said Karin Karlsbro (Renew Europe, Sweden), rapporteur of the opinion in the Committee on International Trade (INTA).
At the COP26, her colleague Peter Liese (EPP, Germany) expressed confidence that this aspect could be included in the text to be voted on in the Parliament. “I could imagine that the Parliament would go for an amendment asking part of the revenues, not all of the revenues, to go for the decarbonisation of least developed countries”, he said. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with Damien Genicot)