Scale matters: cross-scale dynamics of cross-border carbon adjustments

Climate change has palpable cross-scale implications given the severity of the matter epitomized in the prolonged discussions and negotiations between various parties that incur the consequences of the policy applications. Cross-border adjustment, though seemingly plausible, is a controversial method employed to mitigate the adverse potential impact of carbon emissions through placing an extra cost for the goods imported from countries that lag behind the standards set by multiple global agreements. Exercising cross-border adjustment on international trading activities is likely to have positive reverberations on taming the perils posed by climate change as well as triggering unforeseen perturbations in the interaction of actors involved in the global trading system. This chapter intends to shed light on cross-border adjustments via diagnosing the issues emerging out of the inter-scale interactions and question its effectiveness in micro and macro terms.