A very forward-thinking piece of work, from The Aotearoa Circle and Chapman Tripp, which highlights looming risks for NZ exporters as more markets introduce requirements for climate-related disclosures (CRDs).
Exporters are increasingly at risk of facing climate change protectionism, with rules and disclosure standards not fully harmonized across markets, making it easy to unintentionally violate them. While the newly signed EU FTA is a step forward, it also brings CRD obligations, as highlighted in the report:
"The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) imposes a levy with the intended effect that certain imported goods will pay a comparable emissions price for production emissions as is payable for EU-made products under the EU Emissions Trading System.”
Beyond the EU, in any market where there is strong political resistance to free trade, or where trade is used as a carrot/stick to force geopolitical obedience, climate-related disclosures are well-placed to become the new non-tariff barrier.
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