Designing Border Carbon Adjustments

This policy brief from the Stockholm Environment Institute outlines the potential for Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) to address asymmetrical climate efforts between countries, mitigate emissions leakage, and incentivize global climate action.

• Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) are instruments designed to address uneven climate efforts by either including imports within a carbon constraint or exempting exports from one.
• The emergence of heterogeneous domestic action following the Paris Agreement has led to asymmetrical efforts across countries, creating risks of emissions "leakage"—where domestic emission reductions are offset by increases elsewhere—and negative impacts on competitiveness.
• BCAs can be used to level the competitive playing field, reduce emissions leakage, and encourage trade partners to improve their climate efforts; economic modelling indicates that their effectiveness in addressing leakage can range from moderate to very high.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2017). Designing Border Carbon Adjustments. https://www.sei.org/publications/design-border-carbon-adjustments-climate/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Designing Border Carbon Adjustments. 2017. https://www.sei.org/publications/design-border-carbon-adjustments-climate/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Designing Border Carbon Adjustments |date=24 October 2017 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/design-border-carbon-adjustments-climate/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2017designing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Designing Border Carbon Adjustments}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2017}, month = oct, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/design-border-carbon-adjustments-climate/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }