CBAM ADD-ONADD-ON

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) (opens in a new tab) has been introduced by the European Union (EU) to promote lower carbon production in countries outside of the EU. It places requirements on importers of certain goods (currently Iron & Steel, Aluminum, Cement, Fertilizer, Electricity and Hydrogen) to report emissions from their production and ultimately pay a tax on those emissions. Starting in 2026, companies will be required to purchase certificates corresponding to the total emissions from their imported goods in these categories.

Climatiq's CBAM feature uses benchmark emission factors published by the EU that may be used for reporting purposes where estimates are permitted. These include direct, indirect and total emissions for the countries that, together, produce more than 90% of EU imports. Where there is no EF for the combination of good and region, the EU default "Rest of World" EF is applied (opens in a new tab). The default factors may also be obtained directly by using "ROW" as the region. Currently, the CBAM emission factors cover just those published by the EU for Iron & Steel, Aluminum, Cement and Fertilizer.

The goods covered by CBAM regulations are defined by specific Combined Nomenclature (opens in a new tab)(CN) codes. The definitive list of goods is given on the CBAM website in Annex 1 to the Regulation. (opens in a new tab)

Note that the official CBAM guidance is subject to review and revision by the EU and users are responsible for ensuring they comply with the latest guidance.

Estimate

POST Calculate total estimated emissions produced for a particular Combined Nomenclature (opens in a new tab)(CN) code, for use with CBAM reporting.

https://preview.api.climatiq.io/cbam/v1-preview1/estimate

This endpoint lets you specify a CN code and have Climatiq automatically select the appropriate emission factor.

CN codes have to follow the same format as the CBAM regulations to be accepted by the endpoint. The format is one of the following - note the spaces between sets of digits.

• 4 digits: 7309
• 6 digits: 7318 15
• 8 digits: 7318 24 00

The string of digits also has to match the string in the CBAM regulations exactly - there is no hierarchy or fall back e.g. “7309 14 00” will not be converted into “7309”.

Request

This endpoint accepts the following parameters:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://preview.api.climatiq.io/cbam/v1-preview1/estimate \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLIMATIQ_API_KEY" \
  --data '{
    "cn_code": "7206 10 00",
    "production_region": "CN",
    "weight": 100,
    "weight_unit": "t"
}'

Response

This endpoint returns an object with several EstimationWithSourceTrail, which includes the total amount of emissions in kgCO2e and the emission factor used to calculate the emissions.

{
    "co2e": 206000,
    "co2e_unit": "kg",
    "co2e_calculation_method": "ipcc_ar5_gwp100",
    "estimated_costs_eur": 17304,
    "direct_emissions": {
        "co2e": 183000,
        "co2e_unit": "kg",
        "co2e_calculation_method": "ar5",
        "co2e_calculation_origin": "source",
        "emission_factor": {
            "name": "Iron non-alloy steel - primary - ingots",
            "activity_id": "metals-type_iron_non_alloy_steel_primary_ingots",
            "id": "969d9d23-bec0-4c5f-9727-1ca6a0db7505",
            "access_type": "public",
            "source": "CBAM",
            "source_dataset": "Emission intensities at country level",
            "year": 2023,
            "region": "CN",
            "category": "Metals",
            "source_lca_activity": "direct",
            "data_quality_flags": []
        },
        "constituent_gases": {
            "co2e_total": 183000,
            "co2e_other": null,
            "co2": null,
            "ch4": null,
            "n2o": null
        },
        "activity_data": {
            "activity_value": 100000,
            "activity_unit": "kg"
        },
        "audit_trail": "enabled",
        "source_trail": [
            {
                "data_category": "emission_factor",
                "name": "Iron non-alloy steel - primary - ingots",
                "source": "CBAM",
                "source_dataset": "Emission intensities at country level",
                "year": "2023",
                "region": "CN",
                "region_name": "China"
            }
        ]
    },
    "indirect_emissions": {
        "co2e": 23000,
        "co2e_unit": "kg",
        "co2e_calculation_method": "ar5",
        "co2e_calculation_origin": "source",
        "emission_factor": {
            "name": "Iron non-alloy steel - primary - ingots",
            "activity_id": "metals-type_iron_non_alloy_steel_primary_ingots",
            "id": "46f63b74-63fb-4a52-8fea-436a322893b2",
            "access_type": "public",
            "source": "CBAM",
            "source_dataset": "Emission intensities at country level",
            "year": 2023,
            "region": "CN",
            "category": "Metals",
            "source_lca_activity": "indirect",
            "data_quality_flags": []
        },
        "constituent_gases": {
            "co2e_total": 23000,
            "co2e_other": null,
            "co2": null,
            "ch4": null,
            "n2o": null
        },
        "activity_data": {
            "activity_value": 100000,
            "activity_unit": "kg"
        },
        "audit_trail": "enabled",
        "source_trail": [
            {
                "data_category": "emission_factor",
                "name": "Iron non-alloy steel - primary - ingots",
                "source": "CBAM",
                "source_dataset": "Emission intensities at country level",
                "year": "2023",
                "region": "CN",
                "region_name": "China"
            }
        ]
    },
    "notices": []
}

Notice

The notices array can contain objects like these:

The different possible values for code are as follows. You should not treat this list as exhaustive as more values may be added with time: