Organizational GHG verification
The annual inventory, examined at source.
The inventory route
- Home
- Experience
- Sectors
- Aluminium — what makes this sector technically different.
Aluminium — what makes this sector technically different.
The sector where the accounting rule surprises people: electricity is excluded from the CBAM calculation, but perfluorocarbons are not.
Hardest data points
Where inventories in this sector fail.
- PFC quantification from anode effects — the slope method on anode effect minutes, or the overvoltage method, with the technology-specific factor that matches the cell type
- The collection efficiency correction that converts measured duct emissions to total emissions, which is often applied as a default rather than determined
- Global warming potentials actually used: CF₄ at 6 630 and C₂F₆ at 11 100 tonnes CO₂e per tonne, which is the AR5 set — clients frequently arrive with AR4 or AR6 numbers
- Net anode consumption as a direct process emission — anode input minus recycled stumps, not anode purchases
- The distinction between pre-baked and Søderberg routes, which changes what is measured but not whether it is measured
- Primary versus secondary production, since PFCs are not in scope for the secondary route and scrap carries zero embedded emissions
- Embedded emissions travelling with purchased unwrought metal, distinguished as primary or secondary where that is known
- The temptation to include electricity because it dominates the real footprint — under CBAM for this sector, it does not enter the calculation
What is examined
The evidence we will ask for.
- Anode effect frequency and duration records, or overvoltage records, per cell line across the period
- The technology factor applied and its basis, matched to the actual cell technology
- Anode consumption reconciled to production, with stump recycling quantified
- Casting, holding furnace and alloying fuel consumption
- For secondary production: scrap inputs, de-coating and de-oiling energy, and skimmings recovery
- Purchase records and any verification report behind unwrought aluminium precursor data
CBAM
What CBAM says about this sector specifically.
Aluminium is listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2023/956, so only direct emissions are taken into account — the electricity that dominates primary smelting is deliberately outside the CBAM calculation. PFCs from anode effects are in scope for primary production. Alumina is not a CBAM good and not a precursor; anodes and anode paste are raw materials with zero embedded emissions.
Scope note: CBAM verification accreditation has not been granted. Nothing here is offered as accredited CBAM verification before formal grant.
Most requested
The services this sector asks for.
Product carbon footprint
Functional unit, boundary, allocation and the model behind the number.
The product routeCBAM readiness
The evidence file, the monitoring plan and the decision on actual values.
The CBAM route
The normative frame
The standards the work runs under.
ISO 14064-1:2018 · ISO 14064-3:2019 · ISO 14067:2018 for product claims. For CBAM: Regulation (EU) 2023/956 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2547.
Scope position: Confirm the specific activity against Accreditation Schedule 1225009B at pre-engagement.
Other sectors, different evidence problems
Describe the claim — not the service.
Tell us what must be relied on, who will rely on it and by what date. We will confirm the correct programme, evidence requirement and responsible entity — or tell you it is outside our scope.