Border carbon adjustment: a trade perspective

In the absence of an international climate agreement, the European Union unilaterally introduced in 2005 the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Several other countries and regions have implemented, or are currently considering whether to implement, national climate regulations. A highly contentious issue is whether such unilateral national climate policies should apply not only to domestically-produced products but also to imported products, that is, whether measures to regulate emissions from domestic production should – or even can legally – be complemented with border carbon adjustments (BCAs). Such trade measures have been proposed not only in Europe and in Australia, where carbon emission measures have already been introduced, but also in the United States, where the possibility of introducing border carbon adjustments is generally viewed as a political sine qua non condition for the imposition of carbon caps on domestic production. Other countries are considering such measures as well. The purpose of the workshop is to discuss the economic arguments for and against the introduction of BCAs from an international perspective.

Agenda

9.45: Introduction

10.00-11.00 Border Carbon Adjustments from an International Perspective

• Henrik Horn, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Entwined and Bruegel
• André Sapir, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Bruegel

11.00-12.00 A Guide for the Concerned: Guidance on the elaboration and implementation of border carbon adjustment

• Aaron Cosbey, International Institute for Sustainable Development

12.00-13.00 Border Carbon Adjustments and the Potential for Protectionism

• Peter Holmes, University of Sussex
• Jim Rollo, University of Sussex

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.00 Mitigating Carbon Leakage in the EU-ETS: State of Play and Main Policy Options

• Paul Trivaudey, French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy

15.00-16.00 Panel discussion on EU and US policy towards BCAs

• Aaron Coseby, International Institute for Sustainable Development
• EU official

16.00 Conclusion

Practical details

• Venue: Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Bruxelles
• Time: Friday 28 June 2013, 9.45 - 16:15
• Contact: Matilda Sevón, Events Coordinator - matilda.sevon[at]bruegel.org