The Potential Impacts of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on Carbon Neutrality of China

Abstract

Carbon emissions neutrality has been a strategic target of many countries. Most of them have set the deadline at around the middle of this century in spite of very few already achieved. Different kinds of policies and strategies have been made during the past years, including the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from the EU. The CBAM is a carbon tariff on carbon emissions intensive products, such as cement and some electricity. It was imported by the EU currently being legislated as part of the European Green Deal and will to take effect in 2026 with reporting starting in 2023. As the largest economic partner of the EU, China export a large number of products to the EU every year. China has also promised achieving the carbon neutrality target by 2060. It could be predictable that the CBAM would have significant impact on the industrial activities, exportation and the progress of the carbon neutrality of China. However, it is not clear that what impacts and how significance it would be. It is crucial and urgent to explore the impacts of CBAM on the carbon emissions of China and relevant policies. This work makes a review on the state of the art on this topic, the development of CBAM and potential impacts on the carbon neutrality target of China, providing support for relevant research in the future.