New carbon border levy should apply to all industries

Europe’s efforts to go climate-neutral by 2050 could be undermined by imports from countries outside the EU that are less strict about emissions. This would lead to an unfair price advantage of dirty imports over sustainable products from the EU.

In a response to a public consultation, Ecopreneur.eu therefore welcomes the European Commission’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as an important instrument to counteract this risk.

At the same time, our Federation calls on the European Commission to expand the scope of the planned CBAM from cement, iron, steel, aluminium, fertilisers and electricity to all industry sectors, products and services that cause unfair competition due to carbon leakage, including those from agriculture, mining, manufactured goods, and commercial services.

In other words, carbon costs should be accounted for by a levy for all goods and services entering the EU common market according to their actual emissions, and that well before 2030.

Read our full position paper submitted to the European Commission.