The BRICS countries, including China, India, and Russia, have opposed the introduction of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). They called it a punitive measure.
The comments come from the 12th BRICS Environment and Climate Ministers’ Meeting, held under India’s chairship in New Delhi.
BRICS includes the following countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the UAE. However, Saudi Arabia has not attended the meeting.
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“We oppose unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist measures that are not in line with international law, such as carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM),” according to the joint statement of the ministers.
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CBAM entered into force on January 1. Since the beginning of this year, firms in the EU that import aluminium, cement, electricity, iron and steel, hydrogen and fertilisers from non-EU countries are obliged to pay a carbon price under CBAM.
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During the CBAM reporting phase, firms producing high-emission steel reduced their exports to the EU. At the same time, lower-emission businesses maintained their export volumes, according to the June 2026 analysis by Nature Climate Change.
The reporting phase started in October 2023 and ended in December 2025.
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The CBAM aims to protect European businesses against cheaper goods from economies outside the EU with lower environmental standards that lack carbon taxation.
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It IS punitive. The idea is to punish you for emitting CO2, thereby encouraging you to emit less.
Imagine if driver all stood up and went “we reject speed limits as a punitive measure!”
It is actually even smarter then that. The tariff is the cost of emissions in the EU minus the cost of emissions in the country exporting to the EU. In other words China, India and Russia can just raise a carbon tax or trading system with similar limits as the EUs and not pay any tariffs for exports to the EU. I wish more countries would implement something like CBAM.