EU member states yesterday announced the adoption of a mechanism that would bring the bloc’s industrial imports under environmental standards by charging for the carbon emissions linked to their production.
Known as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the agreement covers industrial imports from the regional bloc’s 27 member states, targeting the highest-polluting products first.
“CBAM will be a crucial pillar of European climate policies,” Mohammed Chahim, a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, said in a statement released by the parliament. “It is one of the only mechanisms we have to incentivize our trading partners to decarbonize their manufacturing industry.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
The rules would allow the EU to “apply the ‘polluter pays’ principle to our industry,” Chahim said.
The agreement will initially cover specific products in carbon-intensive sectors, including steel, cement, fertilizers, aluminum, electricity and hydrogen, the European Council said.
Indirect emissions would also be included in the regulation, the council said.
This means that in practice, the importer has to declare the emissions directly linked to the production process, and if these exceed the European standard, acquire an “emission certificate” at the price of carbon dioxide in the EU.
If a carbon market exists in the exporting country, the importer would only pay the difference.
Under the provisional agreement member states came to yesterday, a test period for the agreement is to begin in October, during which importing companies will have to report their carbon emission obligations.
The timetable for the actual implementation of the scheme, which will be gradual, depends on further talks later this week on the rest of the EU’s carbon market reform.
“The new bill will be the first of its kind,” the European Parliament said in a statement, adding that it was designed to comply with WTO rules to push back on accusations of protectionism.
“This mechanism promotes the import of goods by non-EU businesses into the EU which fulfill the high climate standards applicable in the 27 EU member states,” Czech Republic Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Sikela said. “This will ensure a balanced treatment of such imports and is designed to encourage our partners in the world to join the EU’s climate efforts.”
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
RSS