Essay by Eric Worrall
This new carbon tax is a slap in the face for every non-EU nation which has contributed to Europe’s attempts to contain Russia.
Europe takes climate fight global as carbon border tax goes live
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism enters a trial phase on Sunday.
BY FEDERICA DI SARIO AND GIORGIO LEALI
OCTOBER 1, 2023 12:16 PM CETThe EU’s effort to become climate neutral is kicking into high gear — as of Sunday the bloc’s carbon border tax enters a trial period, which is likely to raise tensions with key trading partners.
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism — or CBAM — was adopted last year with the aim of ensuring that goods manufactured in Europe, and subject to the EU’s Emissions Trading System, which sets a price on carbon emitted, will be able to withstand competition from products made in countries where polluting doesn’t come with the same price attached.
Starting October 1, the EU’s trading partners will have to report the greenhouse gas emissions tied to their exports of iron, steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizer, hydrogen and electricity.
Initially, the requirement is just to report the emissions — although companies failing to do so face fines — the actual payments go into effect in 2026.
The point of the exercise is to both shield EU companies from unfair completion and to nudge other countries into setting their own price on carbon. Non-EU producers can deduct the cost of CBAM if they have their own domestic carbon tax.
…
Australia has slammed the planned carbon border levy for harming global growth, while the U.S., which has no national carbon price, is seeking an exemption.
There is particular concern about the impact of CBAM on the U.K. The price of its own emissions trading scheme has collapsed to less than half the level of the EU ETS, meaning British exporters are likely to have to pay hefty fees to the EU.
…
Ukrainian businesses, however, will be exempted because of the war. A European Commission official confirmed that the legislation contains a “provision to tackle exceptional and unprovoked situations with destructive consequences on the economic and industrial infrastructure in a given country.”
…
Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-climate-fight-global-carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism-cbam-tax/
The import carbon tax is an attempt to mitigate the economic devastation caused by Europe’s obsession with unaffordable green energy.
The EU has a big problem with “carbon leakage” – companies fleeing the EU, because skyrocketing energy prices are destroying their ability to compete.
But instead of responding sensibly and fixing the problem by ditching renewables, the EU plan is to try to estimate what imports would have cost had they been manufactured in Europe, and to push up the effective manufacturing cost of those imports by imposing a carbon tax.
The word which comes to mind is “arbitrary”. Even if some nations make efforts to comply by imposing their own carbon pricing regimes, there is no guarantee the European Union will properly account for those efforts in their calculations.
The Ukraine exemption could hit US farmers particularly hard. Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat and other agricultural produce. An exemption for Ukraine from Europe’s new carbon tax, along with massive direct US subsidies for Ukrainian businesses, could significantly impact US agricultural exports to Europe.
EU leaders are only thinking of themselves, they are not acting like friends and allies. They don’t care that this new tax will hurt the economies of their trading partners.
On one hand Europe keeps begging for military aid from the USA and the global community, trusting to the generosity of others to support them in their hour of need, yet at the same time the EU’s climate obsession has driven them to launch a brazen attack against the prosperity of everyone who trades with Europe.
Even though the import tax payments don’t start until 2026, the promise and preparation for taxes is likely to have an immediate chilling effect on the profits of US and other businesses which export to the European Union.
Imagine trying to get a business finance loan to expand your export business, with the threat of escalating carbon taxes hanging over your bottom line? Even if the USA and Australia win exemptions, at most they would be a temporary reprieve. All long term finance deals will be impacted, as will the bottom lines and financial prospects of any business which exports to the European Union.
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CAGW is as misguided as eugenics or Lysenko.
In terms of misguidedness:
1) Lysenko
2) CACA
3) Eugenics
Lysenko had no basis in science. There is a “greenhouse effect”. There is selective pressure, but regression to the mean swamps it.
When eugenics was popular, genetics was very badly understood, so most of what they were attempting was ineffective.
The most extreme proponents of “eugenics”, ie the Nazis, formulated their perverted doctrines after the statistical basis of genetics was established in the 1920s, but they ignored it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Fisher
The “modern synthesis” of Darwinian evolution and statistical population genetics was achieved between the wars. Ironically, statistical analysis began with Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton, who was indeed a eugenecist, due to the primitive state of genetics in his time.
There was a strong tendency to posit a single “gene” for complex traits or behaviors, like “wanderlust”.
English lit majors writing pop science still act as if a “gay gene” could be a likely thing, but their great grandparents were much worse,
The most extreme proponents of “eugenics” in the US were / are the Progressives.
Germany’s eugenics programme was signed off in retrospect, and public outcry had it cancelled within a few months. America ran their official eugenics programmme for decades after, still.
Like Zyklon B, a delousing agent, used in America, on schoolchildren, until 1957.
And just to be sure, go check who the doctors were, that convinced Hitler to sign off on eugenics. The same people later irradiated Yemini children with “experimental levels” of x-rays to the head. 25 000 times safe limits, we are told.
History is but propaganda written by the victor.
To your other delusions, we can now add that you are a holocaust denier.
Your remark is not only irrelevant and off-topic, but your libel really shows off your lack of intellectual honesty.
Or are you just a bit paranoid, finding persecution in the most innocent of remarks?
I agree with your metric for rating, but “regression to the mean” might be a contradictory concept. Regression to the mean is more about the stock market than physics.
Regression to the mean is a measurable fact in biology, the relevant discipline. Statistics was developed for biology, just as calculus was for physics.
Statistics, once established by biologists, of course found applications elsewhere.
“of course found misapplications elsewhere.”
fixed it for you.
Original post: “There is a “greenhouse effect”. There is selective pressure, but regression to the mean swamps it.”
What does regression to the mean imply in that context?
negative feedback, the ultimate regression to the mean.
Statistics was developed for gambling. Biologists are still struggling to apply it.
Statistics was also used by insurers who spent a lot of money studying it.
Regression to the mean occurs everywhere you have a constant mean and constant deviation.
The problem is in assuming these 2 conditions are met when they are not.
A lot of so called undesirables were sterilized under the influence of eugenics.
It’s hard to put an economic price on that.
There’s no mention of eugenics or Lysenko in the post by Eric Worrall. You’ll have Clyde Spencer coming down on you any moment to complain about you hijacking the discussion.
USA government often does what France and Britain governments do, a few years later. Freakonomics Steves did a good job demonstrating why “we” can’t just copy Scandinavia.
Trump says if he is elected, he will impose “reciprocal tariffs” on any country that imposes tariffs on the United States.
The EU relies heavily on exports to the U.S. for income. If Donald Trump were President it would take him about two heartbeats to threaten large tariffs on imports from Europe, then do it if they keep up their madness. But we have the extraordinarily inept and serially wrong Joe Biden as President right now. Fun times.
Even Obama didn’t put up with EU carbon tariffs, when the EU threatened a carbon tax on US airlines, he retaliated by threatening a trade war, and the EU backed down.
The EU is protecting its Garden of Eden.
It would take one New York millisecond, not two heart beats, for Trump to tell the EU to FO, and impose a US import tax DOUBLE OF ANY CARBON TAX.
In fact, under Trump, the EU would not even dream of carbon taxes, because the US merely would use its leverage
Under Biden, the Idiot, the socialist/open border/destroy US posse that gives him note cards, and messages on his teleprompter would applaud the EU
WE ARE SOOOOO SCREWED BY THEM
Protectionism with retaliatory tariffs was one of the big causes of the Great Depression.
No the biggest cause was the Fed shrinking the money supply, at exactly the wrong time.
Dick Cheney said, Deficits do not matter
Bernaky invented quantitative easing, which is the Fed CLAIMING it has money and loaning that money to banks to buy government and commercial junk bonds, or the Fed using some of that money to buy “paper” for its own account.
Protectionism, even without retaliatory tariffs are bad for economies.
They reduce sales by the countries being excluded, and they raise prices for consumers in your own country. A bad deal, except for the politically connected companies who can now raise their prices without worrying about foreign competition.
Folks are soooo brainwashed.
Government interference is the root of all evil.
Protectionism is practiced by weakling, tyrannic governments.
Free trade, without being predators, is the golden rule
“Government interference is the root of all evil”
Pretty much.
Protectionism is what the EU is attempting to do with their carbon tariffs. Threatening them with counter tariffs isn’t protectionism, it’s coercing them to stop their protectionism. Get it? You can’t have free markets when the other player is levying tariffs against you. In reality, most countries practice it to one degree or another. There really isn’t a purely free market.
The cause of the Great Depression this next time will be because of stupid politicians trying to reduce CO2 emissions.
Nope, protectionism and tariffs had nothing to do with the Great Depression; a theory that has been discredited. For what really happened, read Milton Friedman’s “A Monetary History of the United Sates, 1867-1960” or “Free to Choose”.
The stock market crash of 1929 was huge, but before then and since, stock market crashes generally only resulted in brief recessions. It was the failure of the newly created Federal Reserve to shore up New York banks to prevent panic and runs on banks that led to a massive collapse. In the 1913 Federal Reserve Act that created it, the Federal Reserve’s specific mandate is to prevent panics and bank runs by lending money to banks to reassure customers that their money was safe in the bank. They failed to do that in 1930.
Didn’t the WTO rule against carbon import taxes?
Slow Joe’s handlers aren’t wrong. Their goal is to destroy, ie “fundamentally transform”, America.
They want to turn the US population into Obamas, instead of Caucasian-white
How does the dating of this decision coincide with the new US budget not providing for funding for Ukraine of which nearly 50% was being funneled back to the EU??
What exports? The EU is finished as an industrial base after we blew up the pipeline for Mr. Joe.
First off, there is no evidence that the US blew up the pipeline.
Secondly, how can blowing up a pipeline that wasn’t even being used, damage an economy?
Thirdly, somebody blew a hole in a pipeline, they did not blow up a pipeline. To fix the pipeline all they have to do is cut out the damaged section and weld in a replacement. Made a bit more difficult because the pipeline is under water. A repair costing a few hundred thousand at the most. Putin has gotten way more than that in propaganda since the pipeline was damaged. Regardless of who actually did it.
The EU industrial base does seem to be heading into the toilet.
Who is this “we”?
I imagine Germany shutting down perfectly good nuclear reactors was as much of a factor tanking Germany’s economy as anything.
…as long as Trump got his cut.
TDS
“If Donald Trump were President it would take him about two heartbeats to threaten large tariffs on imports from Europe, then do it if they keep up their madness.”
Trump has already said this is what he is going to do. “Reciprocal Tariffs” is how Trump refers to it.
Oh this is Soooo easy to fix.
China will of course follow the rules….not.
You could call it the Inflation Reduction Act II
What carbon emissions? We don’t have any carbon emissions! We’re GREEN! Our diesel fuel doesn’t contain any of that nasty carbon! Neither does our gasoline!
This may be where the whole “carbon tax” comes crashing down more than it already has. People aren’t ready to commit economic and lifestyle standards for something that is ‘maybe’.
“Europe’s attempt to contain Russia” ??? WTF? LMAO. The Europeans are just vassal states of the USA. They do this type of nonsense to try and prove to their people that they are in charge when in reality they are just lackeys.
I’ve always found it fascinating how so many people are eager to believe that first, everything bad that has happened since the dawn of time, happened because the US willed it to happen.
Secondly, anyone who isn’t actively attacking the US is obviously being controlled by the US.
Russia’s propaganda is paying huge dividends.
They are going to lose, it is clear, they are desperate.
Which side are “they”?
Exactly!!
CAGW alarmists of course.
That tax should put the finishing touch on the destruction on the EU economy. Doing the total opposite of what is required has consequences.
After we (uncle sam) blew up the nord stream, to spite the Russian gene
The trolls sure are eager to spout Russian propaganda.
So the anticipated EU CO2 trade war with the rest of the globe begins. Expect tit-for-tat retaliation when other countries penalize EU exports. The U.S.’s national content legislation is not helping the situation. As usual, the common man will be this newest war’s main casualty.
I have some tat to trade.
Well, my left tit is currently in the wringer so you’re out of luck.
Smoot-Hawley, here we come.
That turned out well, didn’t it?
The EU seems determined to damage its industrial base because of ‘climate’.
They are planning to introduce a 10% tariff on any EV that is less than 45% made in the EU. This hits their car manufacturers hard because they, like others, are very dependent on components and battery technology from China. The tariff is due to come into effect in January 2024 and will apply to UK car manufacturers too.
The industry is pleading for a delay but at the moment that is falling on deaf ears.
Protectionism, by any other name…
That’s the main reason that the EU was set up in the first place. European countries were finding it difficult to compete even in the EEC so the EU was established to really nail down the protectionist regulations.
The EU rather than ‘Europe’ is the villain here.
It actually gets even more focused than that, it is the Eurozone that is needing this tax imposition.
The Eurozone is in deep economic trouble due to the overvaluation of the Euro € and its failure to fit into the differing conditions that exist in the zone. Germany can not live with the same conditions and interest rates as Greece and Spain. Italy is in perma decline due to the Euro mechanisms and France is on suicide watch with its overblown public sector and zero economic continence.
The reason the Eurozone need the carbon tax is to support the now explosive scale of TARGET2 balances mostly held by Germany.
Google it, if you do not know what this economic bomb is.
The Eurozone under the guiding ECB’s (Eurozone Central Bank) hand, which is currently run by an ex convicted fraudster and competent synchronised swimmer (seriously) i.e. Christine Lagarde,
needs the money.
I wish people would not conflate Europe and the EU. Europe is a continent; the EU is an undemocratic and corrupt organisation made up of many European countries.
“And the American terrorists who blew up Germany’s nord stream pipeline, ending the European industrial economy was well deserved” ~ Eric Worrall
Huh?
It’s what Putin told him to say.
So much stupidity in one made up quote.
1) Your belief that it was the Americans who blew up the pipeline is not supported by any known facts.
2) The pipeline wasn’t blown up, a hole was blown in one very small section of the pipeline.
3) The pipeline wasn’t being used at the time the hole was blown into it, so it has no impact whatsoever on Europe’s economy.
When Europe and Russia decide that they want to start using that pipeline, it will take at most a few months to fix it. The longest portion of time will be scheduling time on the support ship needed to support the divers who will do the work.
President Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s Nordstream ll pipeline, and then when Joe Biden got in office, he removed the sanctions, and this allowed Nordstream ll to be completed. Joe Biden got a lot of money from the Ressians, didn’t he. Now the Kremlin propagandists want to make out like Biden is the one who blew a hole in the pipeline.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-waive-sanctions-firm-ceo-behind-russias-nord-stream-2-pipeline-source-2021-05-19/
“WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) – The Biden administration waived sanctions on the company behind Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany and its chief executive, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, a move decried by critics of the project in Congress.
A State Department report sent to Congress concluded that Nord Stream 2 AG and its CEO, Matthias Warnig, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, engaged in sanctionable activity. But Blinken immediately waived those sanctions, saying that it was in the U.S. national interest.”
end excerpt
The sooner the Euro collapses the better, I know it will cause turmoil for a while but a currency brought about by a social/political project where 20 countries of varying amounts of fiscal stability all adhering to the same interest rate/money supply is always going to hit problems at some point. They didn’t learn the lessons from the financial crisis a few years ago and it’s heading that way again.
At least the Euro collapse would be offset by the abandonment of the Green taxes levy and the western world could go back to a more sensible regime/economy.
Perhaps not: business taxes are costs passed along as customer prices. If company and stockholders are affected, it is a sure sign that management will be replaced. If there is to be a chilling effect, it will be on European home heating and expenses, and a further hit on EU industrial capacity.
Most likely, more of EU will be going more openly back to Russia as a source of oil and gas, and fighting more vigorously to carve up whatever is left of Ukraine’s oil and gas supply and points-of-entry. The ”exemption for Ukraine from Europe’s new carbon ta” is a sure sign of it. It probably also in part explains the UK Sunak government’s turnaround on North Sea oil and gas, and perhaps the potential opportunities for trade with the EU explains the willingness of Tory “returners” (ex remainers) to back the reverse course as well as Norway’s backing the deal to partner in the oil fields.
We are talking about a trade war among nations, not some “business tax.” And the CO2 tax applies to all goods, not just energy. You are speculating about futures having nothing to do directly with the “tax.”
The EU planned this before Biden’s NATO bombed the NordStream 1 and 2 pipelines last year as Sy Hersh recently again exposed.
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/a-year-of-lying-about-nord-stream
Just imagine the US seeking exemptions now!
Meanwhile Poland saves its own farmers from ruin by blocking Ukraine cereals. Very soon Ukraine’s port of Odessa will cease to function. What will EU farmers do about a deluge of cheap cereals as they go bankrupt. Cereals by the way using EU banned pesticides, likely with Depleted Uranium contamination.
What happened in the last week involving US Gov’t funding and Ukraine :
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-gaetz-announces-motion-oust-mccarthy-speaker-after-secret-ukraine-deal – deceit beyond belief!
Since Blackrock owns Ukraine, and the “US” means BlackRock which is dumping its ESG and netzero policy, we will see amazing backflips :
Wow! Look what one can achieve with a free-floating stream of consciousness.
It flows even better when he neglects to engage his brain.
Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen.
People try to figure out what is going on around them in life, and that’s natural and essential, but conspiracy theorists carry things to the extreme and see coordinating devils behind everything, in their efforts to understand reality.
People want certainty. Imaginery dot-connecting satisfies this need in conspiracy theorists.
That’s not to say there are not real conspiracies out there, but most of them are mental gymnastics on the part of people who desperately want to understand their world. And then think they have it all figured out, which calms them down. The object of this exercise.
Biden faces headwinds :
that famous quote from the cookie pusher comes to mind
“f…k the EU”
“…The import carbon tax is an attempt to mitigate the economic devastation caused by Europe’s obsession with unaffordable green energy…”
The import carbon tax is just another way for governments to steal every dollar they can using climate as an excuse. No matter what the manufactured crisis is the solution is to always give the government more money.
What about GATT?
If you can impose a border fee based on carbon the you can pretty much impose a border fee based on anything unique to your country. How about the cost of defense? The US implement a border adjustment fee on those countries not doing their part to protect the world.
I see a big GATT battle ahead.
Editor(s): The third paragraph in the above-quoted text from Federica Di Sario and Giorgio Leali refers to EU “exports of iron, steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizer, hydrogen and electricity.” (my bold emphasis added)
That doesn’t sound like an effective way to “both shield EU companies from unfair completion and to nudge other countries into setting their own price on carbon” as these authors subsequently state. Furthermore, the black text of the article itself immediately following the quoted excerpts states:
“The import carbon tax is an attempt to mitigate the economic devastation caused by Europe’s obsession with unaffordable green energy.”
(again, my bold emphasis added)
So, did the author’s Di Sario and Leali really mean to imply there will eventually be carbon taxes on exports or imports?
Make no mistake, this is another money hunt for a stagnating economy based on tariff walls of all types. It’s the dashed lines around Europe to match the dashed lines around China and the dashed lines around the UAW union.
I should note that adding a new carbon tax to imports does not take a lot of money.