Biden Eyes Trade Agenda to Combat Climate Change

by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico's Morning Energy) Joe Biden and key Democrats in Congress say they want to use the trade agenda to fight global warming if they win the White House and Senate next month, POLITICO's Gavin Bade reports . Biden's trade agenda calls for a global ban on fossil fuel subsidies, new trade deals to include climate commitments, and import tariffs on goods that produce a lot of carbon.

Key trade leaders say they are on board. If they are successful, the moves could add financial teeth to global climate commitments that so far have only been voluntary. "I'm confident that we'll be able to work with a Biden administration to, in a cooperative way, make sure that we are taking into account carbon emissions," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), head of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee. "We can look at things like having a carbon border adjustment tariff, so that we don’t have countries importing or exporting carbon pollution."

Details sketchy: Biden's camp has so far been reluctant to detail how he would seek to curb carbon emissions. But his "Buy American" plan endorses a "carbon adjustment fee" applied at the border — an idea popular with trade leaders in both chambers. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who would head the powerful Senate Finance Committee if Democrats win the chamber, will only consider supporting a domestic carbon price "if it includes a well-designed border adjustment," a spokesperson said, "to ensure American workers are on a level playing field with overseas competitors."

Carbon-based action? The FERC agenda includes a new entry in the docket covering last month's carbon pricing technical workshop. After getting almost unanimous agreement that it could implement a carbon price on a market-by-market basis during the conference, Chatterjee indicated there would be some kind of follow-up action from the commission, though it's unclear what this would be. READ MORE