The Environmental Impacts of the U.S. Tariff Policy

Risa Zhou ’28

Cathy Zhang ’26

Trade policy has long shaped the U.S., often with the goal of protecting domestic industry, addressing trade deficits or imbalances, or responding to unfair foreign trade practices. While tariffs are designed for economic purposes, they can have complex and widespread environmental effects—both positive and negative—through disrupting supply chains, altering the cost, adoption, and investment of clean technology, and global cooperation and climate efforts. This paper explores both the short-term and long-term environmental impacts of current U.S. tariffs.

In the short-term, tariffs have had mixed environmental consequences. In response, many companies choose to relocate or reroute supply routes, which could either increase or decrease transportation, thereby impacting CO2 emissions. Furthermore, different countries have different carbon intensity—the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of activity (Affairs, 2022)—and tariffing a country with lower carbon intensity can lead to higher global emissions, and vice versa. However, tariffs on sectors like fast fashion could reduce environmental harm by cutting down CO2 emissions (Citterich, 2025). Despite this, raising the cost of imports for consumers and producers alike, tariffs decrease the adoption of clean energy. Many essential components—such as steel and aluminium—to green technology are often imported, and tariffs could delay or cancel the implementation of such systems. For example, electric vehicles (EV) use imported materials like rare earth minerals, poly silicon, lithium-ion batteries—many of which are sourced from countries facing tariffs. According to a report, rising costs have hindered the adoption and production of EVs (Shah, 2025).

On the other hand, long-term environmental effects include changes in industrial development, sustainable technology investment, and international climate cooperation. Since one of the main goals of tariffs is to support domestic industries, it could help develop the U.S.’s green energy sector over time, creating more jobs and decreasing reliance on other nations. However, tariffs always have the risk of retaliation and trade wars, straining international relations. Political tensions mean less collaboration, slowing down the transfer of green technology and sustainable practices across nations. Additionally, it’s difficult to reverse the effects of tariffs, because once industries adjust, they may become dependent on the policies. This can discourage innovation, reduce global efficiency, and hinder efforts towards a more sustainable and cooperative future. Moreover, if domestic products replace cleaner foreign alternatives, combined with transportation and rerouting, emissions could rise sharply.

Trade policy and the environment are increasingly interconnected in today’s globalized world; the climate implications of the U.S. tariffs cannot be overlooked. Though primarily an economic and political tool, they have both harmful and beneficial effects—disrupting supply chains, leading to inflation and greenhouse gas emissions in the short term, and reshaping industrial development, shifting investment, and influencing climate cooperation in the long term. As climate change intensifies, evaluating policies through multifaceted lenses is essential. Ultimately, the impacts of tariffs on our environment are not one-dimensional, but dependent on how they’re balanced and adapted.

Citation

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