The European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST) and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University are organising a virtual USA-EU “town hall meeting” on June 17, 2020 on the role that Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) may play in addressing asymmetry in climate ambition under the Paris Agreement, with special focus on the plans that the European Union has to examine this option. This activity together with other similar planned “town hall” meetings will feed into a policy paper on the international views on BCA that ERCST will publish in collaboration with its partners.
The European Green Deal has strengthened the level of climate ambition, increasing the asymmetry of climate efforts by aiming to achieve climate neutrality in the European Union by 2050. This raises the question of how to deal with competitive pressure and carbon leakage, pushing BCAs to the front as a possible solution.
Border carbon adjustments (BCAs) aim to alleviate negative effects caused by uneven climate policies by including imports and/or exempting exports. BCAs seek to level the playing field in competitive markets, incentivize trade partners to strengthen their own climate efforts and prevent leakage of carbon emissions to jurisdictions with weaker policies. These objectives can be achieved by a tariff or other fiscal measure applied to imported goods, the extension of regulatory compliance obligations (e.g. ETS) to imports or a tax exemption or regulatory relief for exports.
This virtual town-hall is part of the ERCST project on border carbon adjustment, which is supported by Eurofer, Enel, FuelsEurope, the Government of France, the Government of Germany, HeidelbergCement, MetInvest, and Solvay.
 

Participation in these town halls is by invitation only. If you wish to participate, please contact Indira at ivlaminck@ercst.org

 
Workshop Material(s)
Draft Agenda
Announcement
USA Town Hall ERCST Presentation
 
Upcoming Events

• ERCST & Veyt 2026 Review of the EU ETS and MSR: Whitepaper Launch Event (Public)

  October 29 @ 09:30 - 11:30

• International Townhall: EU CBAM Circumvention Risks & Resource Shuffling

  October 30 @ 15:00 - 17:00

• Omnibus Simplification Package – Preparing for Trilogues

  November 5 @ 15:00 - 17:00

• Paper Launch – Bridging the CDR funding gap: design options and policy choices

  November 25 @ 15:00 - 16:30

• Launch event – Towards a comprehensive hydrogen infrastructure – Assessing progress and addressing gaps

  December 11 @ 15:00 - 17:00

• Launch Event: EU CBAM Circumvention Risks & Resource Shuffling

  October 22 @ 15:00 - 17:00

• Stakeholder Roundtable – Future of the EU ETS: EU ETS – CBAM Strawman

  October 21 @ 14:00 - 16:00

• Stakeholder consultation: Towards a comprehensive hydrogen infrastructure – assessing progress and addressing gaps

  October 15 @ 15:00 - 17:00