Carbon border adjustment mechanisms and green subsidies

This session consists of a discussion with Fasken and Baker Hostetler around the EU's proposed climate action following COP26 and how this will impact global trade.

Earlier this year the European Commission announced plans to introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which would apply to a targeted list of carbon-intensive imports into the bloc.

The CBAM aims to ensure that the EU’s own ambitious climate action initiatives are not undermined through “carbon leakage” – in effect, the offshoring of carbon-intensive production to jurisdictions with unpriced carbon. Whilst other G7 countries may follow suit with similar or even coordinated measures, the EU’s proposal has already faced a hostile reaction from some quarters.

Our panel of international trade and sustainability lawyers (drawn from Pinsent Masons, Fasken and Baker Hostetler), hold a transatlantic discussion on the global reaction to the CBAM proposal. The panel will also consider the prospect of certain G7 countries taking coordinated, plurilateral climate action through so-called “climate clubs”, as well as the future of the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in light of the now widespread adoption of “green subsidies”.