Carbon emissions prices are becoming a reality in Western Balkans and particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina – will the countries pay to the EU or rather collect money in their own budgets?

The author of the text is Janez Kopač, a consultant and former director of the Energy Community Secretariat

The European Union introduced carbon pricing back in 2005. Coal-based electricity producers from non-EU countries have high profits due to the non-taxation of CO2 emissions. As a result, the European Union proposed a Regulation on Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) which was adopted in May this year. This legal action is trying to equalize the carbon pricing burden between EU and non-EU producers. It will have a major effect on the economies of some Western Balkan countries, particularly in Bosnia…