EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM):Turnin Foreign Environmental Measures into Trade Opportunities

Abstract

Climate change is a global agenda, requiring international cooperation. Countries around the world are responding to the challenge of climate change in    different ways, some more ambitious and intense in their efforts than others. This is because of factors such as policy, the availability of technology and financial resources     as well as     the strength of countries’ private sectors and civil society. There is a noticeable trend of countries developing legally binding measures of their own to      ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Forming part of this trend is the EU’s “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism” or CBAM. This measure requires importers of goods from outside the EU to pay the cost of emissions at a rate           equal to that paid by the EU private sector. This paper seeks to present information relating to the CBAM measure and analyse both the short- and long-term impacts             of the CBAM on Thailand, before providing strategic recommendations to turn environmental measures such as the CBAM into opportunities for trade and commercial advantage.