EU’s carbon border tax will damage global climate change efforts, China says
- Countries ‘need to prevent unilateralism and protectionism from hurting global growth expectations’, China’s vice-minister for the environment says
- The new tax is aimed at protecting European firms from unfair competition by raising the cost of products from countries that fail to take action on climate change
The EU’s new climate commissioner, Frans Timmermans, said in October that research would begin on the new tax, which is aimed at protecting European firms from unfair competition by raising the cost of products from countries that fail to take adequate action against climate change.
“We need to send a strong political signal to uphold multilateralism,” he said. “We need to prevent unilateralism and protectionism from hurting global growth expectations and the will of countries to combat climate change together.”
Any border tax would likely raise the price of Chinese goods in the European market, and Beijing believes it would violate a core principle of the Paris agreement on climate change, which says richer countries should bear the greater responsibility for cutting emissions.