The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is reshaping global trade. Importers of covered goods including aluminium, cement, steel, iron, hydrogen, fertilisers, and electricity must declare the embedded emissions in their products and surrender CBAM certificates to match those emissions.
Unlike other reporting rules, CBAM creates a direct financial liability tied to the EU carbon price, which makes defensible data, audit-ready evidence, and supplier engagement essential.
NQC's supply chain risk management platform helps organisations manage this process from supplier data collection through to certificate calculation and submission.
Within NQC's ASSURE module, the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism Assessment (CBAMA) confirms which goods fall under CBAM using Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes. It maps suppliers and gathers bill of materials data to capture inputs and precursors.
The CBAMA guides suppliers to provide activity data such as energy use, fuel consumption, and process emissions. It applies recognised emission factors to calculate embedded carbon at each stage of production and determine the certificate costs linked to the EU ETS.
Through ASSURE, the CBAMA produces declarations that meet EU reporting requirements and submits them directly to the CBAM registry via API. Each report includes a full audit trail with supplier evidence, making compliance both defensible and verifiable.
Download our CBAM guide to learn which goods are in scope, what data importers must provide, and how certificate costs are calculated. The guide explains the regulation in plain language and outlines the steps companies can take today to prepare.
