The EU wants to put a tax on emissions from imports. It’s irked some other nations at COP28

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A European Union plan to tax the carbon pollution emitted to make goods imported from countries like India and China has sparked a debate at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, as poorer countries fear such tariffs will harm livelihoods and economic growth.

Through the tax, the EU hopes to set a price on the carbon emitted to make energy-intensive products like iron, steel, cement, fertilizer and aluminum in other countries. The aim is to both reduce emissions from imports and create a level-playing field for goods made in the European bloc that must meet stricter green standards.

The issue strikes at a core dilemma that policymakers are grappling with — and haggling over — at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai: How to get the world to go greener without upending more-fragile developing economies.

Developing countries are worried that the tax under the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism would harm their economies and make it too expensive to trade with the bloc.

“CBAM’s sole aim is to prevent carbon leakage” elsewhere in the supply chain, European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra told reporters at the COP28 conference. He said the tax is crucial for funding and achieving the EU’s climate goal of slashing emissions 55% by 2030.

A recent study by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development found that a tax of $44 per ton of carbon emitted would slash pollution from the supply chain by half. It also estimated that rich countries would make $2.5 billion from the tax, but poorer countries might lose up to $5.9 billion.

Others in wealthier countries including Britain, Canada and the United States are looking to follow suit.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, both Democrats, on Wednesday reintroduced legislation to create the “Clean Competition Act” that would similarly set a fee on imports from high-carbon emitting producers.

Whitehouse, at a panel event Sunday at COP28, praised CBAM as “the brightest star in terms of emissions reduction in our firmament right now.”

“This bill is the effort to do our piece of creating that international carbon pricing regime,” he said, expressing hopes to cut through “a blockade of fossil-fuel dark money and influence in Congress.”

Responding to the worries in the developing world, Whitehouse said such measures would generate revenues for climate justice and improve the pathway toward “climate…