According to government.economictimes.indiatimes.com, India is scaling domestic emissions-verification capacity as exporters prepare for the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which entered its definitive phase on January 1, 2026.
Coordinated National Response
The Department of Commerce has constituted a Committee on Export Preparedness for EU CBAM, chaired by the Additional Secretary handling bilateral trade negotiations. This committee unites ministries, regulators, and industry bodies to align India’s response. A central objective is building domestic capacity to verify embedded emissions in goods exported to Europe — especially critical as CBAM now covers iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity, and hydrogen. The certificate price was €75.36 per tonne of CO2 for the first quarter of 2026 and €75.28 for the second.
Accreditation as Strategic Infrastructure
Verification must occur at the installation level, following EU-prescribed methodologies. The National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) is consulting prospective validation bodies, and two accredited Indian entities have applied for EU and UK CBAM-related accreditation — assessments are underway. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has raised NABCB recognition with the EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security and DG TAXUD. Recognition could significantly reduce costs for Indian exporters, particularly MSMEs operating on thin margins.
Avoiding Compliance Bloat
India faces a risk of constructing an elaborate domestic compliance architecture — multiple audits, consultants, databases, and reporting layers — that would undermine export competitiveness. To prevent duplication, the Department of Commerce, NABCB, and Engineering Export Promotion Council held an awareness programme in August covering embedded-emissions calculations, data collection, and verification. The next step is ensuring emissions data generated for one government-recognised platform can be reused across regulatory systems — vital for downstream exporters who cannot reconstruct upstream emissions histories from multiple steel suppliers.
Digital Carbon Trail Imperative
The Commerce Department has urged the Ministry of Steel to require upstream producers to calculate and provide embedded-emissions information. Without reliable upstream data, downstream manufacturers struggle to determine the carbon content of finished goods. A digital carbon trail — standardised, machine-readable emissions data moving with materials from primary producers to processors and exporters — would reduce repeated verification, improve traceability, and help identify lower-carbon suppliers. This transforms CBAM preparation into industrial policy, not just trade compliance.
Decarbonisation ≠ Accounting
Better carbon accounting does not equal actual decarbonisation. An efficient verification system can measure Indian steel’s carbon content but cannot make it cleaner. Long-term responses require cheaper renewable electricity, greater energy efficiency, increased scrap use where feasible, cleaner processes, and eventually green hydrogen and low-carbon steelmaking. The Economic Survey noted CBAM-covered products’ share in India’s EU exports rose from 6.3% in 2014 to 10.5% in 2023. With the latest India-EU trade agreement expanding market access while retaining CBAM obligations, India’s priority must be a low-cost, digital, minimally bureaucratic national emissions measurement and verification infrastructure — so CBAM adds only the carbon cost and decarbonisation investment, not a third layer of expensive bureaucracy.
Source: government.economictimes.indiatimes.com
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
