What is CBAM?
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is the EU’s regulation to prevent carbon leakage and support fair competition. It ensures that imported goods face the same carbon costs as those produced within the EU by requiring importers to report and pay for the embedded carbon emissions in selected goods.
Starting with high-emission sectors like steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizer, hydrogen, and electricity, CBAM is reshaping the rules for doing business in Europe. By 2030, the regulation will expand to cover more industries and products, including industrial chemicals and crude petroleum.
Why CBAM Matters for Your Business
CBAM isn’t just an environmental policy, it’s a business-critical regulation that impacts your costs, market access, and competitiveness. Here’s how:
- New Compliance Obligations (Including Mandatory Primary Data): Importers of CBAM-covered goods must report embedded emissions to the EU CBAM Registry. From 2026, verified primary emissions data will be mandatory, default values will no longer be enough.
- Rising Carbon Costs: Importers must buy CBAM certificates reflecting the emissions in their products. Without verified data, costs can increase sharply.
- Supply Chain Disruption or Advantage: Businesses unable to track or verify emissions risk fines or even losing import rights. In contrast, companies that collect accurate supply chain emissions data can gain faster customs clearance and build trust with customers.
- Competitive Differentiation: CBAM rewards transparency. Firms that embrace sustainable supply chains can differentiate themselves in a tightening market.
Ensure CBAM Compliance with ImpactOS
CBAM compliance becomes a strategic advantage when your business has the right sustainability data, designed for real-world supply chain complexity.
- Map Your Supply Chain Emissions: Visualize and manage carbon emissions across suppliers, tiers, and materials.
- Collect Primary Emissions Data: Replace default values with verified, audit-ready data. This will be a requirement in 2026, the earlier you start, the bigger your advantage.
- Simplify CBAM Reporting: Stay compliant with automated data flows aligned with the EU CBAM Registry.
- Engage Suppliers Easily: Use our built-in tools to empower your suppliers to generate the data you need, for free, without any technical expertise.
- Prepare for Expansion: As CBAM extends to more sectors, ImpactOS scales with you, ensuring your reporting and data workflows are future-ready.
Complete Service Offering for CBAM Compliance
ImpactOS enables companies to collect verified, primary emissions data across complex global supply chains, fulfilling the data backbone of CBAM compliance.
Partner Services for CBAM Compliance
We partner with experts to offer you the process and assurance layers, e.g. designing due diligence systems, performing audits, and helping submit documentation to authorities. For example:
- Due Diligence Process Implementation: Design and implement due diligence systems, including policies, risk assessment frameworks, and supplier processes, which are critical under CBAM, where tracking embedded carbon and supplier data is essential.
- Internal Audits on Sustainability and Compliance Processes: Internal audits of emissions data gathering and supply chain due diligence processes, ensuring companies are audit-ready for EU regulatory expectations.
- Independent Audits for Regulatory Assurance: CBAM will likely require or benefit from independent verification of emissions data. Our partners offer independent audit services that can be tailored to assess primary data validity, data processes, and compliance controls.
- Risk Assessment & Mitigation Consulting: CBAM requires businesses to assess carbon exposure in their supply chains. We support companies in understanding risks (e.g., unknown emission sources, missing supplier data) and designing mitigation strategies.
- Administrative Support for Regulatory Submissions: Services for managing the administrative aspect of CBAM.
Next Steps
