As part of the extension of the scope of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is to be put to a vote in the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment next Monday in Strasbourg, MEP Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, French) has proposed a reversal of the burden of proof for ‘high-risk’ exporting countries.
This means that products subject to the CBAM and coming from certain countries considered unreliable in reporting their data, such as China, for example, according to Mr Canfin, would be subject to ‘default’ emissions values based on the most polluting facilities. Exporters would therefore have to prove that they are adopting good transition practices in order to be subject to the actual values of the emissions they produce.
The logic behind this proposal, which according to several sources has been incorporated into the compromise text that should be adopted in committee on Monday, is to encourage other parts of the world to decarbonise their production. However, according to a CBAM expert, this would risk turning the climate mechanism into a trade tool.
The extension of the CBAM to 180 additional products was proposed by the European Commission on 17 December (see EUROPE 13775/10). It is intended to prevent carbon leakage, in other words the relocation of these products outside the EU, and to strengthen fairness between European producers, which are subject to the ‘ETS’ greenhouse gas emissions trading system, and importers of certain carbon-intensive products (steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium, hydrogen and electricity). The Council of the EU adopted a political agreement in principle on 12 June (see EUROPE 13887/2). (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)