Hurst: EU Must Force US Climate U-Turn via Trade
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- Alexander Hurst argues the EU should weaponize its single market against the US, which he characterizes as waging "ecological warfare" under Trump's second term via "drill, baby, drill" energy policy
- Gironde wildfires near Bordeaux have displaced more than 200,000 people in France's largest peacetime evacuations, with tens of thousands of hectares burned and the region's chief administrator warning of an unpredictable "thunderstorm of fire"
- Madrid-area fires are described as the largest in Spain's history, burning more than triple the hectares of an average July as a heatwave menaces the country
- The United States has emitted more than one-fifth of all historical emissions and remains the highest per-capita major emitter alongside Saudi Arabia, per Hurst
- Hurst's proposed measures include extending the EU's emissions trading system to all sectors, strengthening the carbon border tax, slapping tariffs on US finished goods with easy substitutes, and placing export taxes on materials used in US-located production
- Revenue from the proposed tariffs and taxes would be pooled and earmarked for decarbonisation and adaptation funding
- China, despite its own emissions, has fostered "breathtaking growth in renewables" and now dominates the world's green industries, contrasting with US recalcitrance stretching from the Kyoto withdrawal under George W Bush to the Paris exit during Trump's first term
Why it matters: Hurst frames Europe's wildfire catastrophe as a trigger for an economic confrontation with the US, targeting the 33% of global emissions produced collectively by smaller-emitting countries that cannot act alone. For European industries now lobbying to deregulate to keep pace with Trump, accepting carbon-leveraged tariffs and an expanded ETS would mark a fundamental pivot from competitive deregulation to coordinated climate-economic policy — with the cash earmarked to fund adaptation.
