The European 'Carbon border adjustment mechanism' is more important than you think
If it works, the new CBAM could fundamentally change the face of European heavy industry, and potentially save hundred's of thousands of jobs - but its not going to be easy
Summary: The European Union has announced it has reached agreement on the much debated Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. You might think - so what, just another contribution to the sustainability alphabet soup. Why should I care. But stop for a second, this move could actually turn out to be important. Yes, its years away from full implementation, but for many industries it could be a game changer. Lets just take a few minutes and think about why.
Why this is important: If this proposal is to have any meaning, Europe needs to invest massively in more renewable electricity, and in the array of supporting technologies that will enable the electricity grids to accommodate their variable electricity generation.
The big theme: Europe wants to decarbonise its so called "hard to decarbonise" sectors, which includes much of our heavy industry. If you add the GHG emissions from the impacted sectors together, you get to roughly 1/3 of all global emissions. So working out how to fix this is one of the big challenges. But its hard, they are not called hard to decarbonise for nothing. There are are good reasons why many of them currently use fossil fuels, so decarbonisation is going to need a lot of government assistance.
The details
Summary of a story from Euractiv
EU negotiators reached an agreement early on Tuesday morning (13 December) that will pave the way for Europe to set up the world’s first levy on carbon-intensive goods entering its market. The so-called carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will mirror the EU’s own domestic carbon price, thereby shielding European industry from cheaper, more-polluting products imported from abroad.
