Paper short abstract:

What does the law need to know to decarbonize the steel and aluminium sectors in the EU? This paper examines how industrial sector stakeholders deal with the EU’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism decarbonization imperative. It highlights the interdependencies impeding decarbonized futures.

Paper long abstract:

Multi-sited and multi-level ethnographies are needed to highlight the interdependencies between states, energy systems, traders and industrial producers which make decarbonization so difficult. Focusing ethnographically on the multi-sited implementation of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a key element of the EU’s Green Deal legislative package, this paper makes the case for a holistic anthropology of the study of climate regulation for decarbonization. CBAM has a dual aim of affecting both domestic emissions by setting an effective price on carbon for hard to abate European industries under the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and to affect change beyond the borders of the EU by imposing a carbon tax on imports of these same sectors to Europe. CBAM is a pioneering policy of its kind and is set to shape the future of carbon pricing globally. In the early stages of its implementation many things remain unclear: from the distributive impacts of CBAM to the methodology to be used for carbon accounting. CBAM is thus raising concerns and speculation across affected industrial sectors. This paper examines how European industrialists of the steel and aluminum sector, commodity traders and unions deal with CBAM’s decarbonization imperative. Outlining their uncertainties, fears and challenges, it asks what does the ‘law’ need to know to deliver decarbonization at a later stage? Beyond tracing the gap between climate regulations and their implementation, I argue that anthropology can provide important insights into energy futures and investment trends, by examining challenges in the present.