(Source: "Global Times" 2025-12-12)
After more than two years of transition, the EU plans to formally impose carbon tariffs (full name "Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism", CBAM) on January 1, 2026. According to a recent disclosure by the British Financial Times, the EU has postponed the review report originally scheduled to be released on December 10. The content includes including car doors, gardening tools, washing machines and kitchen stoves and other products into the scope of the EU's first carbon border tax, as well as supporting anti-circumvention measures and subsidies to exporters. The scope of this collection will be further expanded on the original basis, extending from upstream raw materials to downstream products. Once the relevant measures are evaluated and finally implemented, they may have a certain degree of negative impact on global w88.
The background of the birth of CBAM is the green development goals set by the European Union in response to global climate change, which require reducing the EU's greenhouse gas emissions to 55% of the EU's 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels by 2030. Initially, the EU focused on the construction of a "domestic carbon emissions trading system" and set carbon emission limits for high-emitting industries in the region. As the work of carbon reduction and emission reduction continues to advance, the EU plans to impose corresponding tariffs on imported goods in the steel, cement, aluminum, electricity, fertilizer and other industries from countries (regions) that have not adopted the same method as the EU to levy carbon emission taxes, and direct the tax proceeds to invest in green economic industries. Now, the EU has announced to further expand the scope of carbon tariffs, aiming to solve the problem of "carbon leakage".
The so-called "carbon leakage" problem refers to the fact that the EU has set strict standards for "carbon-intensive" production links in the region based on climate policy, but the climate policies of other countries - especially developing countries - are relatively loose compared to the EU. This makes it easy for companies within the EU to transfer production activities with higher carbon emissions to countries with lower green production requirements or directly import related products from these countries, thus forcing local EU companies to participate in international competition under "structural disadvantages". In this context, the EU intends to expand the scope of carbon tariff products and confirm that a corresponding carbon price has been paid for the carbon emissions generated during the production process of certain goods imported to the EU, helping to achieve climate goals while reducing the price advantage of imported goods, thereby consolidating and enhancing the international competitiveness of EU companies.
The EU carbon tariff mechanism will have a significant impact on EU industrial development and the global w88 pattern. In recent years, energy shortage has become a major problem facing the EU's economic development, and the international competitiveness of the EU's power, chemical and other related manufacturing industries has shown a significant downward trend. If carbon tariffs are further imposed, the import costs of relevant companies within the EU will significantly increase, which will easily accelerate the outflow of high-carbon industries from the EU. At the same time, the EU's global expansion of the scope of carbon tariff products may also increase the uncertainty faced by global industrial and supply chains. Enterprises from various countries will have to include "carbon costs" as a key consideration in production and operations when exporting to Europe. Some low-cost enterprises may lose their competitiveness as a result.
In addition, the EU’s move may also intensify the risks and challenges brought about by w88 protectionism. The carbon tariff mechanism ignores the core principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" in the international climate governance framework, imposes EU carbon pricing standards and carbon emission limits on developing countries, and adopts "mutual recognition of rules and tax exemptions" for developed countries such as the United States and Japan. It is committed to building an exclusive "green alliance" that monopolizes low-carbon technology and industrial development, and creating a green w88 order that is beneficial to it. Its fundamental purpose may be to seize the initiative and voice in formulating global climate governance rules. Currently, the global economy is already facing severe protectionist risks. If the EU further expands the scope of products covered by this mechanism, the international industrial division of labor system may face more negative impacts. Most developing countries with large carbon emissions and relatively backward green technologies will bear greater pressure from this new type of "green w88 barrier" and may even trigger a backlash, causing a setback in the development of the global green economy.
At present, developed countries have completed primitive accumulation by relying on carbon-intensive industries, and their current green transformation is based on the "post-industrial" economic structure. On this premise, they have transferred the burden of environmental governance to other countries by formulating high-standard green development requirements and carbon pricing rules. However, the vast majority of developing countries are still in a period of structural growth with capital deepening. Their energy demand is highly elastic, the proportion of manufacturing is rigid, and financial restraint and climate vulnerability coexist. It is difficult for them to meet the green production standards of developed countries in the short term. They do not have the ability and should not withstand the pressure of "green w88 barriers" from developed countries. Developed regions such as the EU should give full play to their technological and financial advantages, provide financial, technical and capacity-building support to developing countries, respect the development rights of developing countries, rather than restricting them through "green w88 barriers"; developing countries need to combine their own national conditions, gradually optimize the industrial structure and energy structure, and actively participate in the formulation of global climate governance rules. Developed and developing countries should, under the guidance of the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", strengthen international cooperation and shared responsibilities, resolve differences on green development through dialogue and consultation, avoid the formation of "green w88 barriers", and jointly move towards sustainable development.
(The authors are respectively a professor at the Institute of Regional and Country Studies at the w88 casino and a doctoral candidate at the w88 casino of International Economics and w88 at the w88 casino)
Original link:https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/4PVN7XDwBJM
