The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) enters its charge period in 2026, with free allocations phased down on a schedule to zero by 2034. The first scope covers six sectors - steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser, electricity and hydrogen - and petrochemical mid- and downstream embedded imports and carbon-bearing materials will feel the spillover.

In practice, the product carbon footprint (PCF) must be certifiable per batch before export. Putting each batch's emissions data on chain, hashing it with SHA-256 into a tamper-evident fingerprint, and binding it to a cross-chain digital receipt gives the title a "carbon ID card."

Sanctions lines must stay clear. Iranian origin sits on the automatic denial list and never enters the external price sheet or the tradable pool. Iraqi Basrah Light has been exempt since 2026-10-02 and may be contracted directly with SOMO. The two countries must never be written as the same class of restricted origin; that is a red line crossed more than once.

For the operator, carbon proof is not a compliance flourish but a hard prerequisite for future customs clearance and negotiation of payment. Building batch-level PCF early costs an order of magnitude less than retrofitting traceability reports later.