The data required from the operator for their CBAM emissions report is outlined below.

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About your company

A CBAM report requires some basic information about your company. This data is outlined below:

  • Name
  • Address

And, for each installation that your company operates:

  • Name
  • Address

‘Operator’ and ‘installation’ are terms that the CBAM regulation uses to refer to ‘Company’ and ‘Factory’, respectively.

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About your manufacturing / processing activities

To monitor your emissions using the CBAM methodology, you will first need to obtain data around the manufacturing / processing that occurs in your installation. This data should ideally cover a calendar year, which means that imports of the course of 2024 would use data from 2023.

The CBAM covers any activities that occur in your installation that modify the goods in some way. It includes from actual manufacturing processes, such as primary aluminium production, or steel electric arc furnaces, to simpler activities, such as cutting and finishing activities.

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Precursors

Precursors are inputs into your production process that have a commodity code that is included in the CBAM list.

Examples

  • Unwrought aluminium (HS code 7601) is a precursor in an installation that purchases it to produce aluminium sheets (HS code 7606).
  • Steel rods (HS code 7414) is a precursor in an installation that purchases it to produce steel screws and nuts (HS code 7318).

The data required, for each one of your precursors, consists of the following:

  • Commodity code of the good
    • This is the HS code of the goods that you purchase from your suppliers. Only goods for which this code is on the list of CBAM goods are required.
  • Supplier information
    • For each of the goods, the name of the company and contact details for someone at the company.
  • Volume of the goods
    • Volume (in tonnes) that was consumed for this product in the production process.

If available, CBAM compliant emissions reports from your suppliers are helpful. However, when you add your suppliers on to the platform, then they will be able to run through this emissions’ calculation process on CBAMBOO. Their data and your data will be linked.

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Production Process

Precursors consider the emissions that are embedded in the goods that you purchase. The second part of the calculation is to consider the emissions that are generated as part of the processes in your installation.

Emissions in the CBAM regulation are split into direct emissions, which are generated at the installation from the consumption of fuel, for example natural gas, or from process emissions, for example, from the use of additives.

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Combustion

For each of the fuels used in your manufacturing, you will need to collect data on the quantity of fuel consumed. Depending on the fuel, this might be in a volume measure, such as tonnes or cubic metres, or energy, such as kWh.

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Process

For each of the other inputs into your process which generate emissions as they are consumed you need to collect data on the volume consumed and the emissions for the good.

An example of process emissions is the consumption of carbon electrodes used in Electric Arc Furnaces for the production of recycled steel.

EAF carbon electrodes have an emission factor of around 3 tonnes of CO2e per tonne.

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Mass balance

Mass balance is a methodology that measures the carbon emitted in a production process by measuring the difference between the carbon contained in the materials that went into the process and the goods produced from it. This methodology is particularly relevant for the iron and steel sector to account for carbon remaining in the product or in slags or wastes.

For mass balance calculations, you need to collect data on the volume of the materials used on the manufacturing and the carbon content.

By using mass balance in a steel factory, you can account for the carbon going into the process in form of scrap, as well as the scrap resulting of the process. In this case, the process emissions would be increased by the input scrap and reduced by the output scrap.

Steel scrap has a carbon content of around 0.0109 tonnes of carbon per tonne.

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Electricity

Indirect emissions cover the consumption of electricity at your installation. In this case, the data required consists of the MWh used in your production throughout the period. By default, the regulation recommends using your country’s national grid emission factor average to convert the MWh into tonnes of CO2e. However, if you have a ‘Purchase Power Agreement (PPA)’, or own your own electricity generation assets, such as solar panels, you can use this data to calculate your emissions factor.

The CBAM regulation requires a direct link to the power generation assets to account for them in your electricity emission factor. Certain countries, like the UK, have a system called ‘Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin’. These programmes are not applicable to CBAM, as it requires a physical link between the installation and the source of electricity.

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Production data

With the Precursor and Production Process data we can calculate the total emissions at the installation level. However, the objective of CBAM is to attribute the emissions to a specific good, and calculate the Specific Embedded Emissions, which are measured in tCO2e / t.

In order to do this, the calculation requires data on the production levels at the installation. Specifically, you need to obtain the commodity code and volume produced for the different items in your installation.

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Qualifying Parameters

Finally, the CBAM regulation requires data around the chemical composition of the goods, such as the % contents of Manganese in the final good. Most of this information can be obtained from the Mill Test Certificates which usually accompany iron and steel goods.

It also requires information around the usage of scrap in the production the goods. Depending on where your company sits in the value chain, it might be that this data will have to come from your supplier.