The new UK Labor government is looking for ways to circumvent the CBAM. One of the possible options is to combine the British emissions trading system (ETS) with the European one.
This is reported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade with reference to the Argus.
Delegates at the recent Carbon Forward conference in London said that the inability to avoid applying CBAM, the EU's cross-border carbon adjustment mechanism, to the UK would mean abandoning the kingdom's climate policy, the publication reports.
Alistair McGuire, head of policy and advocacy at SSE, said that the application of CBAM would be “politically toxic” in the UK. Among the problems, he mentioned trade disputes, political problems regarding Ireland, and the need for British exporters to actually pay into the EU budget.
"If CBAM is applied to Great Britain, we will be defeated in climate policy," McGirr is sure.
In his opinion, the EU's cross-border carbon adjustment mechanism could be a "useful whip" to encourage the kingdom to join its ETS to the EU system, as such a move would exempt the country from CBAM action.
McGirr hopes that a merger agreement can be concluded before the introduction of the EU mechanism in 2026, and the merger itself will be operational by 2028.
He said that while the newly elected Labor government had not yet confirmed that it intended to merge the systems, it already felt more comfortable working with the EU than the previous Conservative leadership.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote that according to stakeholders, Ukraine should negotiate now with the EU on the postponement of CBAM. We also talked about how EU companies are preparing to full CBAM in 2026.
