Europe Reaches Deal for Carbon Tax Law on Imports

The European Union has taken a step closer to adopting a groundbreaking carbon tax law that would impose a tariff on imports from countries that fail to take strict steps to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. E.U. member states and the European Parliament reached a preliminary agreement on the proposed law on Monday night, and while the bill has yet to undergo legal checks and get final approval, E.U. officials said they expected it to easily clear the final hurdles. “A historic agreement,” said Pascal Canfin, the chair of the…

China Tells Kerry Strained Ties Could Sink Climate Cooperation

China and the United States agree that climate change is a crisis whipping up worsening droughts and storms across the planet. Yet escalating tensions over trade, security and human rights threaten to overshadow efforts between the world’s top two greenhouse gas polluters to stop global temperatures from hitting catastrophic levels. The United States envoy for climate, John Kerry, and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, are wrangling this week over those steps in Tianjin, a northern Chinese city, seeking common ground before international negotiations in Glasgow in November. Leaders from nearly…