Europe asks for the CO₂ payment

 "The EU Commission wants a price to be paid in future for climate-damaging imports. Anyone who wants to import steel, cement, aluminum or fertilizer will have to pay for CO₂ emissions. Other countries are skeptical. 

Pioneers can have a tough time. In climate protection, for example: Nice climate targets can also lead to companies migrating or products no longer being competitive on the world market. Europeans and their industries have been plagued by this concern for years. But now the Commission is working on a new solution: a mechanism that is supposed to charge imported goods for their carbon footprint, in euros and cents. A draft for a corresponding regulation is now circulating in Brussels, it is part of the EU Commission's large climate package; It should be officially presented in mid-July. The responsible Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans called this bundle of twelve legislative proposals "Fit for 55". This should make it possible to reduce the emission of climate-damaging CO₂ by 55 percent compared to 1990. This, in turn, is an important intermediate step for the other goal: Europe should become climate neutral by 2050. 

The Europeans do not want to lose their competitiveness because of the sheer amount of climate protection. The draft for the appropriate answer is 24 pages long. He describes a procedure that is very reminiscent of a tax return. Anyone who imports goods into the EU should know their CO₂ footprint - and submit a declaration to a new authority. For every ton of carbon dioxide that the importer has imported into the EU with his products, he must acquire a climate certificate. Its price, in turn, is based on the average cost of the certificates in European emissions trading. The EU is also a pioneer with this instrument, there is still no international example of this. 

This "border adjustment" should be due from 2026, but initially only for companies that want to import cement, fertilizers or electricity, or products made of iron, steel and aluminum. The mechanism should apply to all third countries except Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. According to the draft, the EU Commission can both adapt the list of goods and exempt countries from tax - for example, as soon as a system for trading in emissions certificates comparable to the EU is created. If an importer has already paid for his CO₂ emissions at home, this should be offset." 

 This time, Europe seems to be taking this seriously. In Lithuania, sitting with smoky diesels and a polluting economy will no longer be feasible.