Wait Until Donald Trump Hears About the Carbon Border Tax
The climate crisis and trade conflicts are two of the world’s biggest challenges and they might be about to collide in the EU’s green deal.
Zero tolerance.
Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images EuropeNext week, the European Union’s leaders will commit to cutting net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. This historic pledge will require the continent to radically overhaul its entire economy, including a revolution in the production of steel, cement and chemicals — whose carbon emissions are particularly difficult to abate.
None of this will happen, however, unless European companies feel able to invest in making themselves greener without suffering a loss of competitiveness. So the European Commission has been toying with the idea of a so-called “carbon border tax,” which would penalize imports from countries that don’t meet the same environmental standards.