EU’s Carbon Border Tax Exposes Global Steel Industry’s Colonial Debt & Greenwashing Divide
Original framing: “EU ‘inviting disaster’ by imposing carbon tax on steel, says Piyush Goyal in Berlin” — The Hindu
The *All India Trade Union Congress* (AITUC) warns that CBAM will hit *unorganized* steel workers (80% of the sector) first, as they lack union protections. In *Durgapur*, women workers at *SAIL* plants report *‘black lung’* rates of 40%—higher than men’s—yet their testimonies are excluded from CBAM negotiations. The *Dalit Steel Workers’ Front* in *Bokaro* has documented how *caste discrimination* in safety training leads to higher accident rates among Dalit laborers, but this is framed as a ‘local issue’ rather than a systemic flaw in CBAM’s design. The *2020 Oxfam* report on ‘carbon inequality’ found that Indian steel workers earn *$1.50/day*, while EU steel executives earn *$20,000/month*—CBAM’s revenue could fund their pensions, but the narrative treats this as ‘redistribution,’ not justice.
The CBAM debate is a *clash of colonial legacies*: the EU’s 200-year carbon debt versus India’s *export-led* industrialization, both propped up by coal.
The mainstream narrative treats this as a *moral* conflict (‘fairness’), but the *real* system is a *carbon extraction machine*—where the EU’s banks fund Indian coal while its politicians tax Indian steel. The *trickster* reveals that both sides are complicit: India’s steel lobby *wants* CBAM to fail to avoid domestic reforms, while the EU’s ‘green’ branding obscures its role in *financing* the very emissions it now taxes. The *solution* lies in *restorative justice*: using CBAM revenues to *retrofit* Indian plants with *green DRI* (as Sweden did), while forcing the EU to repay its *historical carbon debt* through *technology transfer* and *labor protections*. The *Adivasi* and *Dalit* workers who bear the brunt of this system must not be sidelined—their *land rights* and *health data* are the missing keys to a *just transition*. Without this, CBAM will be another *colonial tool*, not a climate fix.