By: Dwight Links
At the Namibia-EU Business Forum currently underway in Windhoek this week, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Namibia, Ian du Pont, shared a presentation on the impact and possible misunderstandings of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
The aim of the forum is to help Namibian businesses and policymakers navigate the two European Union (EU) regulations which target carbon footprints in production and examine whether trees were cut down during processes of manufacturing, shipping and storage.
Du Pont noted that the reason for the introduction of such mechanisms stemmed from the reporting obligations that exporting countries will have to honour from 2027.
He highlighted that this was borne from the rapid industrial prosperity that Europe enjoyed before 1990, stating that there were “increased living standards and a wave of improved living for millions of people. But, this came at the cost of increased emissions and man-made global warming.”
Du Pont indicated that even though Europe introduced stricter environmental and labour standards, producers and manufacturers simply moved operations.
“This led to environmental and social costs being shifted elsewhere. The EU is trying to ensure that the goods we consume are produced responsibly and in a sustainable way. We cannot separate climate action and trade from environmental sustainability and responsible value chains,” he added.
According to the EU Green Deal, which is the backbone agreement to the just energy transition and the major green industries kicking off in Namibia and elsewhere outside Europe, the target is zero pollution, zero harm to the environment, and carbon neutrality by 2050.
“This is to ensure that harmful consumption does not occur elsewhere. EUDR entered into force from 2023, and is expected to apply to medium and large businesses by the end of 2026, while CBAM has moved into its definitive phase in 2026,” Du Pont added.
Reporting obligations contained in the CBAM are expected in 2027. The EU delegation noted that there had been extensive engagement and feedback in the phasing-in period of CBAM in 2025 from partner nations who would be impacted by the regulations, with Du Pont confirming expected benefits.
“We aim to make these regulations practical, workable and proportionable in the implementation and reduce the administrative burdens. This is meant to ease compliance requirements,” highlighted Du Pont on the CBAM developments.
Namibian sectors set to be part of the CBAM and EUDR regulations will be meat, mining and charcoal. With the EU confirming that most of the charcoal industry already has an EUDR compliant certification for export to Europe.
Sam Williams from the EU’s Tax and Customs Union explained that another aim of the CBAM is to address potential carbon leakage.
“This is when production has potential emissions taking place, and these production capabilities shift to third countries with weaker climate rules, which would then undermine the decarbonisation efforts,” Williams explained.
He simplified the depiction of the CBAM as placing a price on the emissions of the imports at a level equivalent to production in the EU, namely the EU emissions trading system (ETS).
According to Williams, EU producers also face the same rules as a company from outside the zone.
“CBAM is therefore an environmental measure and should not be confused as a trade measure. It aligns carbon costs to emissions, and does not apply to single or third countries but rather to products,” he added.
On the question of whether there would be any penalties or punitive measures applied to producers or third countries outside the EU selling high-carbon footprint products to the zone, Williams confirmed that customers or the importing companies would bear these costs.
