Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) aims at preventing the risk of carbon leakage for certain sectors, starting with aluminium, cement, iron and steel, fertilisers, hydrogen and electricity.

The mechanism is designed to ensure that the price of imports reflects more accurately their carbon content.

Why it’s important

With the EU’s high climate ambition and the degressive nature of the existing carbon leakage provisions, our industry needs strong protection measures to stay globally competitive, as any flaw in carbon leakage protection can pose an existential threat.

In its current form, CBAM is not yet fit for purpose for our sector, as it presents a number of significant shortcomings, notably regarding the treatment of downstream products, the lack of an adequate and predictable export solution, and the absence of robust anti-circumvention measures.

 

What we are seeking

We’re asking policymakers to address the unsuitability of the current CBAM’s design, by:

  • Providing a comprehensive and predictable solution for CBAM sectors’ exports in third markets;
  • Revise the timeline for free allocation phase out for CBAM sectors
  • Providing robust anti-circumvention measures
  • Maintain the exclusion of indirect emissions from CBAM for aluminium and ferro-alloys

 

For additional information on this subject contact:

georgescu@european-metals.eu  or   verardi@european-metals.eu