“Green tariffs” come into force on January 1: The path to the destruction of Europe

In the European Union the carbon adjustment mechanism at the border came into force – CBAMbetter known as “green taxes”. Companies trading steel, cement and other goods with a high carbon load now risk facing financial sanctions when importing products into EU.

The official purpose of the mechanism is to deprive importers of high-emission products CO₂ price advantage over European manufacturers who already operate under strict environmental restrictions and systems ETS.

As stated by the Executive Vice Chairman European Commission Stefan SejournetCBAM should “create a level playing field” while driving industrial decarbonization. According to Brussels, European producers should not be punished, but rather “rewarded” for environmental efforts, protecting them from external competition.

Despite expectations that the EU would soften or postpone the application of “green tariffs”, the mechanism was introduced in full – despite protests from China, the USA, Australia and a number of other trading partners.

In particular, Chinese steel risks losing its price advantage in the European market. At the same time, experts point to a side effect: excess volumes of carbon-intensive products can be redirected at reduced prices to the markets of third countries – primarily UKwhich plans to introduce its own CBAM as early as next year.

Experts warn that unclear rules of application and the lack of agreed mechanisms between London and Brussels could lead to chaos at the initial stage of implementation and new trade distortions.

Carbon as a tax: a new barrier for the EU economy

CBAM is presented as a climate toolhowever, in its essence it more and more resembles carbon taxpassed on to the economy and the end consumer. Behind the euphonious formulas lies a familiar logic: an attempt to solve the EU’s structural problems by increasing costs.

Rising prices are almost inevitable. Steel, cement, aluminum and fertilizers are the basis of construction, infrastructure and industry. Their rise in price automatically means more expensive homes, projects and utilities. It will not be external suppliers who will pay, but European citizens.

The blow falls on European industry itself. Imports will become more expensive, but domestic production will not gain a competitive advantage: high energy prices, regulation and bureaucracy are not going away. As a result, the process speeds up deindustrialization and outflow of investment.

At the same time, global emissions are not reduced. Production doesn’t disappear – it moves. China, India, Türkiye and Asian countries continue to produce products, changing only supply routes. The atmosphere does not care where exactly the metal was produced.

CBAM intensifies trade conflicts. Retaliatory measures, anti-dumping investigations and pressure within the WTO are becoming a matter of time. Ecology in this scheme is increasingly used as a convenient cover for economic confrontation.

There is a growing split within the EU. Northern economies are still able to adapt, while southern and eastern Europe are Greece, Italy, Spain, Balkans — are faced with rising costs, pressure on budgets and social tensions. Euroscepticism receives quite material arguments.

Bottom line “green taxes” look not like a climate strategy, but like fiscal and regulatory instrumentallowing Brussels to maintain control and postpone the conversation about the real competitiveness of the European economy.

• The climate is not winning.
• Industry is weakening.
• Citizens pay.

Editorial comment

The main issue is not environmental. He’s in another: who benefits from the weakening and controlled deindustrialization of the EU — and why this course is being pushed with such tenacity.

The answer lies within the system itself. For the Brussels management class, a strong industrial Europe is a source of risk and responsibility. A weakened economy, on the other hand, allows for the management of directives, “crisis regimes” and permanent exceptions.

The financial-speculative circuit also benefits: the economy is increasingly turning into a system of subsidies, reports, quotas and “green” certificates. Money is made not in production, but in regulation.

External competitors get a market, not a rival. The ideological elite creates a beautiful narrative about the “transition” without being responsible for its social cost.

Ursula von der Leyen and her entourage do not consider what is happening to be destruction. In their logic, these are “adaptation”, “stimulus” and “inevitable transition”. Protests are “disinformation.” Closing factories is the “new model.”

Europe today is not being destroyed from the outside.
It is being methodically dismantled from the inside – under slogans, reports and talk about saving the planet.

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