Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
Learn about the system that the EU uses to import goods from outside the EU, which sets a fair price for the carbon emitted during production and promotes cleaner energy. As well as the mechanism to be implemented at the border due to the risk of leakage of this carbon.
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
In the Communication of 11 December 2019 entitled “The European Green Deal”, the Commission set out a new growth strategy, aiming to address climate and environmental challenges and achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
The European Green Deal aims to protect, maintain and enhance natural capital and protect the health and well-being of citizens from environmental risks and impacts.
As the EU increases its own climate ambition and manages to significantly reduce its domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, GHG emissions implied by imports into the Union have continued to rise , which undermines the Union's efforts to reduce its footprint on the world.
As long as there are countries with less stringent climate policies and which do not reach the same level of climate ambition as the Union, the risk of so-called "carbon leakage" will continue to exist.
Carbon leakage occurs when companies based in the EU move polluting production to other countries with less strict climate policies than in the EU, or when EU products are substituted by more carbon-intensive imports.
The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is an instrument for the import of goods from outside the EU, addressing the risk of carbon leakage. This mechanism, regulated in Regulation 2023/956 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 10, 2023, sets a fair price for the carbon emitted during the production of carbon-intensive goods and encourages cleaner industrial production in non-EU countries. The EU.