German rubber industry warns against CBAM extension to elastomers

Frankfurt, Germany – Germany’s rubber industry association (WDK) has urged the EU not to extend its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to elastomers and organic chemicals.

Introduced in 2023 with a pilot phase for steel, CBAM imposes a carbon levy on imports to align them with EU climate regulations.

The inclusion would mean that EU importers would need to pay a carbon price on the "embedded" greenhouse gas emissions from imported rubber products, equivalent to the price of EU ETS allowances.

In a statement 26 Aug, WDK chief executive Boris Engelhardt said the industry did not need an extension of the programme at a time when "costs are rising, bureaucracy is growing, production is migrating.”

Engelhardt pointed to problems in the steel pilot phase, including unreliable emissions data, fragmented reporting, and inconsistent standards across member states.

“Essentially, the whole system is associated with new bureaucratic effort… And thus, stands in the way of the announced EU policy to cut bureaucracy,” he said.

According to the WDK chief, CBAM will make imports, and therefore production in Europe, more expensive.

“The current 50-tonne exemption limit does not help us, as our industry buys from large importers who pass on the additional costs,” Engelhardt noted.

CBAM, Engelhardt went to warn, is “de facto fuelling a carbon leakage” in Europe, leading to migration of production.

The WDK also warned that extending the mechanism to elastomers and organic chemicals would damage competitiveness and supply security in the sector, which depends heavily on such raw materials.

“We appeal to the EU Commission: No further administrative hurdles, no state-enforced price increases, no further carbon leakage,” Engelhardt concluded.