09/01/2021
The US, China, & EU have committed themselves to raising the penalty for carbon emissions—at different speeds & with different coverage & approaches. Raising the carbon penalty, through taxes, trading systems, or regulations will inevitably make home-produced goods and services more expensive. The fear is that nations with less ambitious efforts will export goods that are cheaper because their penalties are less costly. This fear, in turn, inspires concern in other countries that their exports will be unfairly penalized by protectionist measures. These threats could lead to an escalation of protectionist actions that would undermine the world trading system.
Two months before the next big United Nations climate conference in November, the three biggest greenhouse gas emitters—the United States, Europe, and China—are at loggerheads over how to reduce reliance on fossil fuels without excessively disadvantaging their own economies.
