[Ferro-Alloys.com] ArcelorMittal has called for member states and MEPs to support the introduction of a carbon border adjustment, as part of the European Commission’s EUR 1 trillion Green Deal, aimed at making the bloc carbon neutral by 2050. In a manifesto ‘Creating a low carbon world, the case for a Carbon Border Adjustment’, ArcelorMittal set out its firm belief that a CBA should be one of the first Green Deal measures adopted by the new European Commission, as it will help to create the market conditions and protections needed for companies to make investments and transition to carbon neutrality without disruption. Currently within the EU, energy-intensive industries including steel producers pay a carbon cost under the EU Emissions Trading System. But this does not apply to steel producers from markets outside the EU who can sell steel with comparable or often significantly higher, carbon emissions, at a lower price. The result is that steel production is moving to non-EU countries where carbon emissions legislation is often less strict, undermining efforts to combat climate change. However, with a CBA, when steel comes into the EU, the carbon costs that European producers pay would be added to the imported steel, equalising the cost of carbon for every producer to create a fair market and, crucially, encouraging investment in lower-emissions steel production.

 

ArcelorMittal believes that a CBA can be applied in various ways, as long as it neutralizes the disparities in carbon costs between domestic products and imports, and incentivizes the transition to low carbon steel production. In the manifesto, ArcelorMittal highlights how the best-designed carbon border adjustment could work effectively:

 

Producers exporting to the EU should be charged the same marginal carbon emissions cost as European producers pay under the ETS. This should serve as a catalyst to other countries to introduce their own carbon schemes and invest in technologies to decarbonise.

 

The CBA should initially be applied to primary goods, rather than end products like household appliances and everyday tools. This is the most practical way to introduce the CBA.

 

To be effective, free allocation of ETS allowances, which are gradually being phased out by the European Commission, should be maintained in the first stage of the CBA, alongside compensation for high energy costs as an indirect result of the ETS. This is crucial to enabling European steel to stay competitive and ensure a smooth transition without disruption. （steelguru）