The COP28 climate summit in Dubai ended this month with a historic pledge to hasten the transition away from carbon emissions caused by fossil fuels. But that commitment is toothless without incentives and leadership to generate results. An efficient way for advanced countries to make progress towards the COP28 goal is Europe’s approach of tying carbon pricing to a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) that imposes a duty on carbon intensive imports. But that method has so far been politically impossible in the United States.
Yet there are mechanisms that could move the United States in…