| In November 2021,the United Nations Climate Conference（COP26,the twenty-sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties）was held in Glasgow,Scotland.At the conference,U.S.President Joe Biden apologized for the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement,acknowledged that the U.S.and other energy-hungry developed countries bear a large share of responsibility for climate change,and said he would seek an agreement from the U.S.Congress in response to his proposed climate investments.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India will be carbon neutral by 2070.The Chinese government has also previously stated that it will be carbon neutral by 2060.The topic of global warming and the goal of reducing emissions has received an unprecedented amount of attention worldwide.The EU released its Green Deal back in 2019 to show its ambition to reduce emissions.By implementing a package of policy initiatives,the EU hopes to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55%by 2030（compared to 1990）and achieve climate neutrality by 2050.The European Climate Law（ECL）,among other things,makes climate neutrality by 2050 legally binding by incorporating it into EU law.As one of the key emission reduction policy tools,the EU Emissions Trading System（ETS）was launched in 2005 and is the world’s first carbon market.However,with the rising price of ETS allowances and the gradual reduction of free allowances,companies in the EU may choose to invest or shift their production to countries outside the EU with less carbon emission restrictions,or be forced to give up their market share to competitors with higher carbon emissions,leading to the rising risk of Carbon Leakage,and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism（CBAM）came into being.On July 14,2021,the EU released the "Fit for 55" package,becoming the most advanced and comprehensive region in the field of carbon reduction.The EU CBAM is also the first carbon border adjustment mechanism in the world to be legislated.The U.S.,the world’s highest carbon emitter per capita,has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 50%by 2030（compared to 2005）,to use new energy sources for half of its new vehicle purchases,and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.However,the policy seems to be difficult to be passed in the U.S.Congress.It will inevitably end up as a formality and a blank check.Although the EU’s CBAM may have doubts about violating the two non-discrimination principles of the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade（GATT）,if emission reduction becomes a global theme and the previously mentioned doubts are avoided at the institutional design level,the EU’s CBAM will be the most mature mechanism in the world and will form an effective reference for other countries.Other countries,including China,must actively study the relevant provisions of the EU CBAM in order to integrate and align with the global carbon market,for the sake of trade and even institutional design considerations of the EU.The draft EU CBAM legislation,which will be introduced on July 14,2021,is a relatively new research topic,and there are few systematic research articles in China.Most of the foreign articles were published before July 14,2021,and appeared in the form of EU public policy consultation,indicating attitudes towards CBAM and suggestions for institutional design,and lacking systematic analysis and introduction of the draft after its introduction.This paper will adopt the normative research method,literature synthesis research method and comparative research method to interpret the EU CBAM draft articles,related papers and reports,and then introduce the background,status,potential conflicts with WTO related rules,operation mechanism,impact on Chinese industry and response measures of Chinese government and Chinese industry in a comprehensive and systematic way.Specifically.The analysis of the global trend of carbon emission reduction and the latest attitudes of countries to reduce emissions,and the conclusion that carbon emission reduction is the consensus of most countries in the world;In addition,the thesis has reached the conclusion that "EU CBAM has not violated the relevant WTO rules",and while not reaching the above conclusion,the thesis has proposed two innovative solutions to increase the practical significance of the study of this topic;and then the in-depth analysis of the EU draft legislation and relevant public policy consultation documents.The draft EU legislation and related public policy consultation documents were analyzed and studied in depth to summarize the operation mechanism of EU CBAM;finally,the customs data of each country（region）were compared and various industry reports were analyzed to prove the possible impact of EU CBAM on Chinese industry and the countermeasures. |
