World’s first carbon import tax approved by EU lawmakers

17 comments
  1. Are they idiots? Inflation is through the roof, people can barely afford basics and they now plan to hike up prices through taxation?

    Will they halve their salaries and benefits or it’s just as peasants who will pay more?

    Talk about being detached from reality….

  2. Did they mention how this will work?

    Will this be on a country basis or will it be on case by case basis?

    Or both? Like the carbon tax is based on the country of origin’s flatrate unless the manufacturers can prove that their product was made using renewable energies and thus exempt.

  3. Could anybody EILM5?
    Something manufacturered in a country with high emissions gets taxed when imported into the EU? Is it per company, per sector, per country?

  4. I have mixed feelings. The good, is that finally Europeans (who have a falling carbon footpring, unlike most other people on the planet) won’t shoulder the costs of climate change alone.

    On the other hand, we have a living standards crisis in Europe. Housing is expensive, purchasing power is stagnant and has even recently declined. If this is not reversed, expect more political turmoil down the like.

    Tackling climate change is important, but ensuring a good life for Europeans should remain the top concern. Of course, climate change does influence this, but any sacrifice Europeans make has less and less of an impact in tackling it as our collective weight in global CO2 output declines. I mean, with the EU having less than 8% of global CO2 emmissions, a 10% reduction can easily be nullified by a political decision in China, India or wherever.

  5. Legislation kind of reads okay at face level but somewhat weird timing to bring this in.

    Europe can’t even manage inflation through monetary policy at the moment but they’re proposing a tax on primary inputs now? Why not 3 years earlier when inflationary environment was more appropriate? Or after headline inflation dips a bit?

    Question on top is, why is it that the tax only applies to finished inputs mostly like steel, concrete, and fertilizer??? Why not primary commodities that goes into producing these??? Pretty obvious that the way this is structured is to protect uncompetitive steel/concrete industry more so than actually to combat climate change, since if that was the aim the commodities should be taxed as well under the scheme

  6. This is essentially an import duty that will primarily impact poorer countries that rely on exports. I hope other countries retaliate by imposing carbon taxes on all European (and other Western) goods, based on their historical excess emissions.

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