CBAM and definitions for a better understanding
The Guidance document on CBAM implementation for importers of goods into the EU confirms and provides with the following definitions:
- ‘tonne of CO2e’ means one metric tonne of carbon dioxide (‘CO2’), or an amount of any other greenhouse gas listed in Annex I adjusted to the equivalent global warming potential of CO2.
- ‘Direct emissions’ means emissions from the production processes of goods, including emissions from the production of heating and cooling consumed during the production processes, regardless of the location of the production of the heating and cooling.
- ‘Indirect emissions’ means emissions from the production of electricity, which is consumed during the production processes of goods, regardless of the location of the production of the consumed electricity
- ‘Embedded emissions’ means emissions released during the production of goods, including the embedded emissions of relevant precursor materials consumed in the production process.
- ‘Relevant precursor material’ means a simple or complex good which has embedded emissions not equal zero and which is identified as being within the system boundaries for the calculation of embedded emissions of a complex good.
- ‘Simple goods’ means goods produced in a production process requiring exclusively input materials and fuels having zero embedded emissions.
- ‘Complex goods’ means goods other than simple goods.
- ‘Specific embedded emissions’ means the embedded emissions of one tonne of goods, expressed as tonnes of CO2e emissions per tonne of goods.
- ‘Specific embedded emissions’ means the embedded emissions of one tonne of goods, expressed as tonnes of CO2e emissions per tonne of goods.
- ‘Production process’ means the parts of an installation in which chemical or physical processes are carried out to produce goods under an aggregated goods category defined in Table 1 of Section 2 of Annex II to the Implementing Regulation, and its specified system boundaries regarding inputs, outputs and corresponding emissions.
- ‘Aggregated goods category’ is implicitly defined in the Implementing Regulation by listing the relevant aggregated goods categories and all the goods identified by their HS customs codes in Table 1 of Section 2 of Annex II.
- ‘Production route’ means a specific technology used in a production process to produce goods under an aggregated goods category. One production process usually relates to one group of CBAM goods produced (the ‘aggregated goods categories’). However, in some case more than one production route exists for producing these goods.
The compliance with the CBAM requires a high care to: a) non-preferential orign; b) customs classification; special regimes; c) customs value; d) management of the supply chain. In other words, it requires a specific care for the main pillars of the AEO authorization.