CBAM: an industrial mechanism at odds with reality
On 1 October 2025, FACE attended the informative breakfast organised by the Spanish Aluminium Association (AEA) and MEP Susana Solís (EPP) to discuss the impact of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on Europe’s aluminium industry.
Industry representatives delivered a clear message: CBAM, in its current form, risks destabilising an already fragile system, further aggravating the industrial crisis Europe is facing. Far from fostering decarbonisation, CBAM acts as a new tax on imports, creating distortions and penalising European companies across the entire value chain. Estimates point to a structural overcost of up to €4.3 billion per year, in a context already marked by plant closures, high energy prices and geopolitical tensions.
As it stands today, CBAM represents a growing contradiction within EU policy: a measure intended to protect European industry that instead threatens its very survival. Unless it is rethought and redesigned, it risks isolating Europe from key partners in the Global South and undermining the very foundations of its green transition.
FACE reiterates the need for a change of approach: we need instruments that incentivise low-carbon production and support industrial competitiveness, rather than weaken it.
The full FACE article published in A&L Magazine is available here.
