EU reaches deal on carbon border tariff

Following a night of negotiations, the European Union came to a political deal in the early hours of this morning to impose a carbon dioxide emissions tariff on polluting goods, including cement, in a scheme described as a world-first to support European industries on their decarbonisation journey.

According to Reuters, negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament reached a deal at 05.00h in Brussels on the law to impose CO₂ emissions costs on imports of cement, along with iron, steel, fertilisers, aluminium and electricity. Companies importing these goods into the EU will be required to buy certificates to cover their embedded CO₂ emissions.

The tariff will be launched on 1 October 2023 for a test period that imposes only reporting obligations on the imports of goods covered by the scheme. After this transition period, the full levy will kick in. However, the end of the test phase is yet to be decided and will be discussed in further negotiations at the end of this week.