A Legal Exploration of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

R Leal-Arcas, M Faktaufon, A Kyprianou

Abstract: In December 2019, the European Commission released a mechanism to fight climate change, namely the European Green Deal. This policy was put in place to materialize the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015, that is, to combat the issue of climate change along the lines of sustainable development and fight poverty. In the context of the European Green Deal, one of the key instruments envisaged to achieve the ambitious plans of the European Union(EU) is the so-called Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is the focus of this article and has been described as an ‘extraterritorial outreach’ for attempting to regulate matters outside the EU borders. This article seeks to answer is whether the CBAM is justified in line with the need to protect the environment and address climate change as well as increasing global economic welfare and reducing poverty. This article provides an overview of CBAM, analyses the rationale behind CBAM as well as the various misgivings from third parties. It contextualizes CBAM in the context of free trade and examines whether CBAM is consistent with multilateral trade rules. It then provides the design of a CBAM based on the principles of international trade and sustainable development. The article concludes that, overall, the analysis of CBAMs, particularly regarding the fervency of the EU to make its CBAM compatible with both trade rules and climate change objectives, demonstrates states’ growing interest in protecting the planet, while preserving economic values; it also indicates the importance of trade in managing those interests.

欧盟碳边界调整机制的法律探索

R Leal-Arcas, M Faktaufon, A Kyprianou

摘要：2019 年 12 月，欧盟委员会发布了一项应对气候变化的机制，即"欧洲绿色交易 "。这一政策的出台是为了实现 2015 年《气候变化巴黎协定》的目标，即按照可持续发展的思路应对气候变化问题，并与贫困作斗争。在 "欧洲绿色交易 "的背景下，为实现欧洲联盟（欧盟）的宏伟计划而设想的关键工具之一是所谓的 "碳边境调整机制"（CBAM），这也是本文的重点，该机制被描述为试图监管欧盟境外事务的 "治外法权外延"。本文试图回答碳排放权调整机制是否符合保护环境、应对气候变化以及增加全球经济福利和减少贫困的需要。本文概述了 CBAM，分析了 CBAM 背后的理由以及第三方的各种疑虑。文章将CBAM 置于自由贸易的背景下，探讨 CBAM 是否符合多边贸易规则。然后，文章提供了基于国际贸易和可持续发展原则的建立信任措施的设计方案。文章的结论是，总体而言，对CBAM的分析，特别是欧盟使CBAM既符合贸易规则又符合气候变化目标的热忱，表明了各国在保护地球的同时维护经济价值的日益增长的兴趣，它还表明了贸易在管理这些利益方面的重要性。

文章来源：Leal-Arcas, R. (2022). A Legal Exploration of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. European Energy and Environmental Law Review, 31(4), 223-240.