The green wave at Sunday’s French municipal elections shows us that many citizens want an acceleration of the ecological transition. Cities have a fundamental role to play in this transition, particularly through clean mobility and smart spatial planning. The European Mission for 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030 interim report presented last Friday, gives an important signal in this regard.
The EU has also a key role to play as far as international trade aspects of the transition are concerned. Europe cannot fight climate change alone. Our 2050 climate neutrality objective will require a high carbon price. The resulting high costs for carbon intensive industries should incentivise businesses to accelerate their own transformation, provided carbon leakage does not occur. To this end, we propose a European border carbon adjustment mechanism.
On the Track to Climate Neutrality by 2050: the EU Must Work Towards a Cooperative Approach to Border Carbon Adjustment!
The debate around the political and technical feasibility and the WTO-compatibility of a European Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA) mechanism is gaining momentum. Europe Jacques Delors has contributed to the European Commission’s inception impact assessment (IIA) on the basis of six key recommendations developed in our latest policy paper. In this paper, we argue that the alignment of BCA on the EU ETS and a cooperative approach towards our main trading partners will be key to the success of this endeavour.
We are delighted to see the positive reactions to and critical engagement with our recommendations. We would like to particularly thank the 250 participants who attended the presentation of our BCA proposal with Bernd Lange, Chair of INTA committee, and Sabine Weyand, Director General for Trade at the European Commission, on 3 June. After a first presentation of our draft proposal at the OECD’s 39th roundtable on sustainable development in February, Pascal Lamy and Geneviève Pons will return to the OECD to intervene on this subject alongside its Chief Economist Laurence Boone in July. Moreover, we shared our recommendations in a workshop in the European Parliament hosted by Pascal Canfin and the former French Minister Edmond Alphandéry on 23 June, and will again intervene on the issue in the European Parliament on 2 July.
A 2030 Vision for our Ocean and Waters
Meanwhile, another mission, the one on Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters chaired by Pascal Lamy published its intermediate recommendations on how to enable the regeneration of our oceans and waters by 2030. Both Pascal Lamy and Geneviève Pons will present the Mission Board’s efforts and meet with international stakeholders at the 3rd edition of the Tunisian Forum de la Mer on 15 and 16 July.