Ilaria Espa & Kateryna Holzer, “From Unilateral Border Carbon Adjustments to Cooperation in Climate Clubs: Rethinking Exclusion in Light of Trade and Climate Law Constraints” (2023) 12 European Yearbook of International Economic Law 389.
This article analyses the trade and climate law constraints applicable to border carbon adjustments (BCAs), and to the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) recently proposed by the European Union (EU) in particular, by focusing on its ‘exclusion’ features. After introducing the concept of and the rationale behind BCAs (Sect. 1), the article gives an overview of the EU CBAM proposal and explains how, depending on the level of ambition of their country of origin, covered imports can either be partially or fully excluded from the scope of application of the EU CBAM (Sect. 2). Section 3 delves into the specifics of such exclusion features and discusses trade and climate change law implications. Section 4 elaborates on whether and, if so, how the main issues raised by the exclusion features of the EU CBAM as a unilateral measure could be overcome by opting for a carbon club approach and further considers which model of clubbing could be more appropriate also with a view to foster mutual supportiveness between the multilateral trade and climate regimes. Finally, Sect. 5 concludes.
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