Europe threatens U.S. with carbon tariffs to combat climate change [View all]
Europe threatens U.S. with carbon tariffs to combat climate change
“It’s not whether it’s going to happen — it’s going to happen,” former Secretary of State John Kerry predicts.
By ZACK COLMAN
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/13/europe-carbon-tariff-climate-change-084892
"SNIP......
MADRID — European countries frustrated by inaction on climate change are taking a lesson from President Donald Trump’s trade wars — and threatening carbon tariffs on laggards like the United States.
By imposing tariffs on goods from the U.S. and other countries that lack tough climate policies, the Europeans would help their own industries avoid being handicapped by the EU’s greenhouse gas efforts. But if they hit the U.S., they would risk a worsening trade war with the Trump administration, which has already threatened hefty tariffs on goods such as French champagne and German autos over a range of competition disputes.
Potential carbon tariffs have been an active topic at the United Nations climate conference that wraps up this weekend in Madrid, where nearly 200 nations have been at odds over how to counter the continued global rise of greenhouse gas emissions. And some diplomats say it’s inevitable that governments will turn to trade barriers in the effort to fight climate change.
“It’s not whether it’s going to happen — it’s going to happen,” former Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped negotiate the Paris accord during the Obama administration, said in an interview with POLITICO.
......SNIP"
= new reply since forum marked as read
