Addressing Trade Protectionism with Climate Ambition

The briefing argues for the use of border carbon adjustments (BCAs) to align trade policy with climate goals, suggesting that carbon charges on imports can prevent carbon leakage and encourage global low-carbon production.

• The authors propose using border carbon adjustments (BCAs) to create a level emissions playing field by applying the same economic burden to both domestic and external manufacturers, thereby reducing the incentive to move production to areas with less regulation and encouraging trade partners to provide low-carbon products.
• The document argues that applying carbon charges rather than trade tariffs would support the Paris Agreement and suggests that countries should use current trade tensions as an opportunity to increase climate ambition instead of continuing tariff disputes.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2018). Addressing Trade Protectionism with Climate Ambition. https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-trade-protectionism-climate-ambition

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Addressing Trade Protectionism with Climate Ambition. 2018. https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-trade-protectionism-climate-ambition.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Addressing Trade Protectionism with Climate Ambition |date=16 July 2018 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-trade-protectionism-climate-ambition |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2018addressing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Addressing Trade Protectionism with Climate Ambition}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2018}, month = jul, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-trade-protectionism-climate-ambition}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }