EU electricity importers must account for embedded emissions and surrender corresponding certificates under the definitive Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which took effect on 1 January 2026. The rules bring emissions obligations into cross-border power procurement and expose traders and consumers to costs that can arise before certificate settlement. Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 and the European Commission’s electricity-specific CBAM guidance set out the rules.
Import responsibility and deadlines
The authorised CBAM declarant is generally the importer or an eligible indirect customs representative that assumes the relevant obligations. In qualifying cases involving explicitly allocated electricity import capacity, the entity allocated and nominating that capacity and declaring the import to customs is treated as the authorised declarant without a separate authorisation application.
Electricity is not covered by the general 50-tonne exemption available for certain other CBAM goods. Importers therefore cannot use that mass-based threshold to exempt smaller electricity transactions, and must account for emissions and surrender the relevant certificates under the applicable rules.
Purchases of certificates for 2026 electricity imports begin in February 2027. The first annual declaration and certificate surrender covering those imports are due by 30 September 2027, leaving importers with regulatory exposure between the start of certificate purchases and completion of the annual settlement.
Origin, evidence and commercial exposure
Electricity’s movement through interconnected networks complicates the treatment of trades: commercial transactions, scheduled deliveries and physical flows do not necessarily match a simple bilateral shipment. Where power is generated in one non-EU country, traded through another and then enters the EU, the country of production—not automatically the intermediate trading country—is the relevant origin for CBAM purposes.
Electricity entering and leaving the EU under an applicable customs transit procedure without being released for free circulation is not treated in the same way as power imported for EU consumption. These distinctions are particularly relevant to transactions involving Serbia, Montenegro and neighbouring EU markets, where electricity may pass through multiple counterparties and cross-border trading arrangements.
Importers seeking to use actual emissions rather than default values must satisfy prescribed eligibility requirements and provide appropriate contractual evidence, production and metering records, transmission nominations and independent verification. The evidence must substantiate the quantities and periods claimed, and emissions information must match the relevant imports and withstand regulatory scrutiny.
A renewable electricity certificate or a contract statement describing power as green is not, by itself, sufficient to meet every condition for using actual emissions. EU importers therefore need systems that reconcile customs declarations with electricity schedules, generation information and contractual obligations.
Contracts will need to address how future certificate purchases are financed, how carbon-related price adjustments are applied and who is responsible for obtaining emissions information. An EU trader may be the legal declarant while the contract allocates the financial cost to a generator, intermediary or industrial customer.
Steelworks, aluminium manufacturers, cement producers and other electricity-intensive EU consumers may consequently face CBAM-related costs through power procurement even when they are not the declarant. For Western Balkan exporters, providing clear and independently verifiable documentation gives EU counterparties information needed to establish origin and emissions treatment.
As the 30 September 2027 declaration and surrender deadline approaches, the competitive position of cross-border traders will depend not only on electricity price and origin, but also on records showing what was imported, where it was generated and which entity carries the carbon obligation. The cited reference materials also include an OECD customs implementation analysis dated October 2026.
