Carbon border adjustment mechanisms: Will innovative climate policy launch a trade war?
The ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe plant in Duisburg, Germany, on January 7, 2020. Photo by Leon Kuegeler/Reuters.
The Biden administration may only be several months old, but its statements and actions have already raised the global profile of climate issues. The new climate czar, John Kerry, has been traveling the world to secure bilateral pledges of more aggressive action to combat climate change. And expectations are rising for a new consensus on collective mitigation activities at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland in November. These are welcome developments, particularly when coupled with new regulatory actions by large emitting economies, including China and India, to reduce their carbon footprints and the game-changing possibilities of the European Union (EU) moving forward on its own green deal.