Next week, the European Union's leaders will commit to cutting net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. This historic pledge will require the continent to radically overhaul its entire economy, including a revolution in the production of steel, cement and chemicals — whose carbon emissions are particularly difficult to abate.
None of this will happen, however, unless European companies feel able to invest in making themselves greener without suffering a loss of competitiveness. So the European Commission has been toying with the idea of a so-called carbon border tax, which would penalize imports from countries that don't meet the same environmental standards.
It's a sensible idea, but one that's likely to cause the EU no end of grief. If U.S. President Donald Trump gets wind of a European "green deal" that includes a possible tax on American imports to help fight climate change (something he appears not to believe in), he will no doubt hit the roof. The climate crisis and trade conflicts are two of the world's biggest challenges and they might be about to collide.