INTERVIEW: EU CBAM could fuel drive toward global carbon price: GHG Protocol CEO

A global carbon price could emerge within two to five years, driven by the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, prompting other governments to adopt similar tariffs on carbon-intensive imports, Greenhouse Gas Protocol CEO Tim Mohin told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, in an interview.

The UK, Australia and China are moving toward CBAM-style measures, a shift already reshaping trade in carbon-intensive commodities such as steel by penalizing high-emission producers, Mohin said on the sidelines of the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development congress in Rio de Janeiro Aug. 26.

"CBAM was created for fairness, to distinguish a dirty ton of steel from a green ton of steel and is already having a massive impact," Mohin said. "The global carbon market will require tariffs."

The EU's position at the forefront of carbon tariffs, through its emissions trading system and CBAM, means any future global carbon price is likely to be anchored to the EU carbon market price, Mohin said.

Global carbon language

The merger of the GHG and the International Organization for Standardization should be completed in 2028, helping facilitate a global carbon price and "create a global carbon language," Mohin said.

"A global standard is essential to decarbonization. If we can't measure it, we can't manage it," he added.

The consolidation will unite GHG Protocol's Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3 and Actions and Market Instruments standards with ISO's 14064-1 standard, with an integrated public consultation planned for the second quarter of 2027.

This harmonization represents a key milestone for accounting and responds to growing demand for consistent, interoperable greenhouse gas accounting as climate ambition intensifies across global markets.

A coordination meeting is scheduled for September, to be followed by an industrywide consultation in 2027, Mohin said.

The GHG Protocol and ISO are also jointly drawing up a carbon footprinting methodology that accounts for a product's full lifespan to generate a corporate carbon inventory number, he said.

The methodology will be mandatory for companies to use, replacing an existing system based on carbon footprinting estimates, he said, adding that "any company using fossil fuels will be disadvantaged" under the new approach.

Underpinning this pricing push is a broader shift toward mandatory corporate carbon disclosure, which Mohin said is already the norm among large companies and reinforces the case for standardized, market-relevant carbon data. He said 97% of S&P 500 companies already report their carbon emissions, a practice that has accelerated in recent years.

"Investors want and need this information in a company's financial report, because climate change is real and we see the risks, the costs and the opportunities," Mohin said.