ERCST Guide to the EU CBAM
AUTHOR(S): Andrei Marcu, Michael Mehling, Aaron Cosbey and Alexandra Maratou
ERCST has accompanied the policy discussion on the CBAM with a series of activities, including analytical reports, briefings, and policy recommendations, as well as extensive engagement with relevant stakeholders inside and beyond the EU. As the earliest analysis by ERCST already underscored, a CBAM is a highly complex instrument, and each design element offers numerous options for implementation that entail a variety of trade-offs for the environmental and economic benefits of the measure as well as its technical, legal and political viability.
The draft regulation proposed by the European Commission in July 2021 presented a measured, pragmatic compromise – but in doing so, the EU opts for safety and takes few risks, arguably losing valuable time for the industrial transition, and punting the most difficult design choices further down the road.
ERCST’s project ‘Border Carbon Adjustments in the EU – Part II” was made possible by support from BDI, CEFIC, Enel, Eurofer, Eurometaux, Fertilizers Europe, FuelsEurope, HeidelbergCement, the Government of France, the Government of Germany, the Government of Spain, Metinvest, Solvay and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra.
