Carbon Boarder Adjustment Mechanism - CBAM

As part of the European Union’s Fit for 55 programme, the established Carbon Boarder Adjustment Mechanism, CBAM for short, is seamlessly linked to the central European climate protection instrument, the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). Alongside the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), CBAM is intended to minimise the risk of carbon leakage and support the EU ETS in its functioning. Carbon leakage describes the effect when companies based in the EU relocate their CO₂-intensive production processes to third countries outside the EU. With the aim of minimising carbon leakage and fairly accounting for the full emissions of products used in the EU, CBAM requires the affected sectors: cement, electricity, fertilisers, iron, steel and aluminium to disclose information on import volumes and producer emissions. From 2026, CO₂ costs will be gradually levied on the basis of the emissions reports to be submitted, which are based on the respective CO₂ certificate costs of the EU ETS.