Carbon Compliance Center

Scope: Cement, iron & steel, aluminium, fertilisers, hydrogen and electricity, defined by CN code lists.

For petrochemical trade: Petroleum products (paraffin wax, base oil, fuel oil, bitumen, petroleum coke) are currently NOT on the CBAM list. The obligated party is the EU importer (authorised CBAM declarant); exporters act as data providers.

Scope: Replaced the €150 per-consignment allowance with a single mass-based threshold of 50 tonnes of CBAM goods per importer per year. Does not apply to hydrogen or electricity.

For petrochemical trade: The Commission estimates this exempts roughly 90% of importers while still capturing about 99% of embedded emissions — the burden sits with a small number of large importers.

Scope: Article 4: the functional unit defaults to 'production of goods, expressed in tonnes, falling under the same CN code'. Fertilisers by nitrogen content, cement by clinker content.

For petrochemical trade: The basis for calculation classification. Crude steel, steel products, unwrought aluminium and aluminium products must be aggregated if they differ only in dimensions/shape with identical precursors.

Scope: Published 31 July 2026, correcting selected default values, production-route indicators and product-code entries, applying retroactively from 1 January 2026.

For petrochemical trade: Affected importers may need to revisit 2026 calculations. Example: default values for aluminium precursors of undetermined origin rose ~47.5% (CN 7616 99 90 from 3.770 to 5.559 tCO₂e/t).

Scope: Covers unwrought aluminium (CN 7601) and aluminium products (CN 7603–7616). Aluminium is on the direct-emissions-only list; indirect emissions are not reported separately in the definitive period.

For petrochemical trade: Key determination: alumina, prebaked anodes, anode paste and cryolite are NOT treated as precursors under CBAM; their upstream emissions are excluded from embedded-emissions calculations — i.e. upstream emissions from petroleum coke used as anode feedstock are not counted.

Scope: Proposed extension from 1 January 2028 to steel- and aluminium-intensive downstream goods (machinery, components, finished products). Organic chemicals, polymers and refined petroleum products are listed as potential directions under review.

For petrochemical trade: Forward signal for petrochemical trade: if organic chemicals and polymers are brought in, downstream petrochemical chains are directly affected — a product carbon footprint data foundation should be built in advance.

Scope: CBAM certificate pricing is anchored to ETS allowance auction prices: quarterly average of the quarter of importation in 2026, weekly average from 2027 onward.

For petrochemical trade: The direct determinant of carbon cost. The CBAM factor rises from about 2.5% in 2026 to 100% by 2034.

Scope: Covers aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen, iron and steel. Imported aluminium and steel scrap are excluded. Primary legislation in Finance Act 2026; secondary legislation released for technical consultation in 2026.

For petrochemical trade: Exports to the UK require separate assessment. The UK has decided not to extend CBAM to refined oil products in January 2028, and continues to assess later feasibility.

Scope: Following strategic and technical assessment, the UK Government decided not to expand CBAM to refined oil products in January 2028, and will continue working with the sector to assess the case for later expansion.

For petrochemical trade: A favourable, explicit signal for fuel oil and refined product exporters to the UK: no UK CBAM certificate cost in the near term.