The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which entered into force on 1 January 2026, is a climate policy tool designed to prevent carbon leakage and ensure fair competition between EU and non-EU producers. CBAM puts a carbon price on certain imported goods that is equivalent to the carbon price EU producers pay under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).
It concerns sectors producing iron and steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizer, electricity, and hydrogen.
If those products using carbon-intensive processes are made outside the EU, the importer shall pay for the embedded emissions when bringing them into the EU.
The embedded emissions shall be verified by an independent body (verifier) that is accredited according to Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 by an EU (EEA) National Accreditation Body (NAB).
The National Accreditation Bodies ensure that verifiers possess the necessary competence to understand the technical processes carried out by installations and to assess the specific monitoring and reporting boundaries of an installation, depending on the goods produced. For this purpose, a separate accreditation scope is being created for each relevant CBAM activity group, so that National Accreditation Bodies are able to evaluate the verifier’s competence and performance against specific criteria depending on the particular scope of accreditation.
In November 2025, the European Commission published the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2551 on supplementing Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (CBAM) by specifying the conditions for granting accreditation to verifiers, for the control and oversight of accredited verifiers, for the withdrawal of accreditation and for mutual recognition and peer evaluation of accreditation bodies.
According to the EU CBAM Regulation and the Delegated Regulation 2025/2551, a verifier located in the EU shall apply for accreditation to its National Accreditation Body. Verifiers established in a third country shall request a National Accreditation Body from the EU that provides accreditation under EU CBAM to grant accreditation.
Where the National Accreditation Body provides accreditation services under EU CBAM but is unable to carry out the accreditation of a verifier established in a third country, the National Accreditation Body – with the support of EA – will help those verifiers to find a National Accreditation Body that can provide accreditation in the third country concerned.
The first CBAM declarations, in respect of the calendar year 2026, shall be submitted by 31 May 2027 to the competent authority of the EU Member State where the authorized CBAM declarant (usually the EU importer) is established, via the CBAM registry. These annual declarations shall include embedded emissions data that has been verified by an accredited verifier.
You find more information about EU CBAM on the European Commission’s website https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism_en.
The Refresher Training session for TL and DTL was held on 10-11 December 2025, with 20 participants from 15 NABs, led by Kristina Hallman, Leopoldo Cortez, Nicole Vanlaethem and Daniela Ionescu.
The Refresher Training session for TL and DTL was held on 10-11 December 2025, with 20 participants from 15 NABs, led by Kristina Hallman, Leopoldo Cortez, Nicole Vanlaethem and Daniela Ionescu.
