Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the carbon border adjustment mechanism supports the international competitiveness of businesses.

The CBAM is an environmental policy designed to support decarbonisation and mitigate the risk of carbon leakage. It will be introduced on 1 January 2027.

Carbon leakage can undermine efforts to reduce global emissions and curtail private investment in decarbonisation – compromising efforts to reach net zero and limit global warming to 1.5°C.

The CBAM will ensure highly traded, carbon intensive products from overseas face a comparable carbon price to those produced here so that UK decarbonisation efforts lead to a true reduction in global emissions rather than simply displacing carbon emissions overseas. It will give industry confidence to invest in the UK knowing their decarbonisation efforts will not be undermined.