EU Considers Exempting Majority of Firms from Carbon Levy
By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission may consider exempting 80% of companies due to be covered by its upcoming carbon border levy, the EU's head of climate policy said on Thursday.
EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the Commission's analysis had found that nearly all of the emissions covered by the carbon border tariff - 97% - are produced by just 20% of the companies covered by the scheme.
"So would it then not be smart to leave that roughly 80% off the hook, in terms of the administrative work burden? In my view, it would," he told a European Parliament committee meeting.
"Our current thinking, where you actually apply a huge burden on companies who would then fill out a lot of paperwork, have a lot of things to do, without any merit - that cannot be the solution," he added.
The EU's carbon border levy will from 2026 start applying fees at the EU border on the CO2 emissions embedded in imported steel, cement and other products.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; editing by Barbara Lewis)
