China, India, Russia reject EU's carbon tariff as 'punitive measure'
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10876353
The BRICS countries, including China, India, and Russia, have opposed the introduction of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). They called it a punitive measure.
The comments come from the 12th BRICS Environment and Climate Ministers’ Meeting, held under India’s chairship in New Delhi.
BRICS includes the following countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the UAE. However, Saudi Arabia has not attended the meeting.
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“We oppose unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist measures that are not in line with international law, such as carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM),” according to the joint statement of the ministers.
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CBAM entered into force on January 1. Since the beginning of this year, firms in the EU that import aluminium, cement, electricity, iron and steel, hydrogen and fertilisers from non-EU countries are obliged to pay a carbon price under CBAM.
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During the CBAM reporting phase, firms producing high-emission steel reduced their exports to the EU. At the same time, lower-emission businesses maintained their export volumes, according to the June 2026 analysis by Nature Climate Change.
The reporting phase started in October 2023 and ended in December 2025.
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The CBAM aims to protect European businesses against cheaper goods from economies outside the EU with lower environmental standards that lack carbon taxation.
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https://balkangreenenergynews.com/china-india-russia-reject-cbam-as-punitive-measure/Open linkView original on scribe.disroot.org
13 replies
Yeah except the real problem never gets dealt with. This is just an excuse to use climate change to make money without really doing anything to combat climate change. Oil and gas still have you all under their cocaine.
China burns more fossil fuels than anyone else. If they want to avoid the carbon tariffs, they can just improve their environmental laws to the high EU standards and all is fine.
I don't give a shit its been over 100 years and all you hear is excuses. They also have the highest population on the planet but nobody gives a shit if its also 40 European countries combined.
This isn't about population or about total emissions. It's about the emissions caused by things being imported into the EU. The EU is, basically, trying to stop exporting their/our emissions to China et.al.
Yeah again an excuse to make money while doing absolutely nothing about the core issues.
CBAM is a waste of time. It takes an inordinate amount of time to manage, and the exact data they want is often unobtainable. It simply puts the onus onto developing countries that the EU has benefitted from for many decades. It's a regulatory cartel and slow surreptitious price fixing.
This isn't true. The data is known. Countries like China can simply avoid the carbon tariffs by improving their environmental laws to the high EU standards, but Beijing has no interest. They just want to produce cheap and continue burning fossil fuels.
My job is import and exports of industrial machinery & spares and customs compliance, and I can tell you from experience that the data is not known in most instances. A piece of steel that came from raw material mined in one country, sold by an agent to another, formed and processed in another, and made into a final product in yet another, before being combined with some other parts with similarly contrived history will often have a poor paper trail or estimated figures the closer to source you go. It's a tax the EU has made for not using their raw materials and products.
The CBAM is based on data, but it is clear that China has no interest in transparency. It is one of the major countries that oppose heavily transparent supply chains. That aside, the claim that 'the data is not known' or 'can't be collected' is hilarious when it comes from governments like China that is fixated to collect its every citizen's move 24/7.
It's a tax the EU has made for high emissions or shit tracking of emissions. Both of those need to be put in order
BRICS keeps on making polite statements and hoping that the US / EU will negotiate in good faith. To be honest, this is probably mostly our (India's) fault. We haven't been attacked as much as Russia or China, so our diplomats are still too naive.
Hahahaha you think they’re acting in good faith? Talk about naive.
I know they aren't, but our diplomats keep pretending that NATO countries can be trusted. Best case they're stalling while we build alternatives to Western systems and tech. But then they also invite US tech oligarchs or EU officials and announce huge deals that predictably go nowhere. I just hope they're looking at what happened to Russia / China, and how those countries responded, and learning from the experience.