Ukraine should secure a two-to-three-year postponement of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) because of the war and the economic risks facing Ukrainian producers.
Kseniia Orynchak, founder of the National Association of Extractive Industries of Ukraine, said this at the United by Mining forum.
According to Orynchak, the EU’s special carbon tariff on goods associated with high carbon emissions has been discussed since 2020. In her view, however, the Ukrainian authorities have not paid enough attention to the mechanism during that time.
Orynchak hopes that Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi’s government will secure a delay in CBAM for Ukraine of at least two to three years.
“Perhaps it will manage to secure a two-to-three-year postponement for Ukraine, as our association is asking. We, as businesses, are not refusing to pay. But there is reality, and there is a war,” she said.
Orynchak believes that the lack of a coordinated position among the Ukrainian authorities remains a separate problem.
She stressed that CBAM currently directly affects sectors including metallurgy and cement plants. The extractive industry expects its impact could extend to other products in the future.
“The EU is effectively waging a trade war with third-world countries, and we need to be fully aware of this. We have experts and companies that can demonstrate it. Let businesses negotiate directly with the European Commission. Perhaps that would work better. Perhaps not everyone has a sufficiently deep understanding of the issue that needs to be advocated,” the association’s founder added.
CBAM is the European Union’s environmental levy on imports of goods with a high carbon footprint. Earlier, the GMK Center think tank estimated that Ukraine’s GDP losses from CBAM could amount to around $372 million in 2026 and rise to $1.754 billion in 2030.
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