Meeting in plenary session, the European Parliament approved on Tuesday, September 15, the extension of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), by 464 votes in favor, 50 against and 159 abstentions. The text must now be negotiated with the European Union’s 27 member states before its final adoption. Far-right groups mostly split between abstaining and rejecting the text, while other political families, from conservatives to the radical left, largely backed the parliamentary position.
…
The CBAM aims to limit carbon leakage, meaning the relocation of production to countries where climate constraints on industry are weaker. It complements the European Union’s emissions trading system, to which European producers in several energy-intensive sectors are subject. Having entered its effective phase in early 2026, the mechanism requires importers of certain high-emission goods to pay a carbon cost comparable to that borne by producers subject to the European carbon market. The initial scope covers steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, electricity and hydrogen.
…
The extension approved by MEPs concerns finished or semi-finished metallurgical products. The stated objective is to prevent companies from circumventing the mechanism by importing a processed good containing steel or aluminum, rather than the raw material directly covered by the CBAM. In a preparatory note published in September 2026, the European Parliament’s research service indicated that the Commission’s proposal added 180 downstream products, averaging 79% steel or aluminum content and a high risk of carbon leakage. Parliament also requested that the extension be based on transparent quantitative methods.
…
The European Commission defended the extension in the name of the continent’s industrial competitiveness, amid heightened competition with China and the United States. The regime also includes an exemption threshold of 50 tonnes of imported goods per importer per year, adopted as part of the mechanism’s simplification. According to European institutions, this threshold should exclude around 90% of importing companies from administrative obligations while maintaining coverage of around 99% of the emissions concerned.
…
Some of EU’s trading partners such as China - the world’s largest carbon emitter - cried foul over the carbon border tax, calling it discriminatory.
…