The CBAM definitive period: what changed on 1 January 2026
Reporting became a priced liability. The four obligations that now bite, the three 2025 regulations behind them, and the file a non-EU operator has to be able to produce.
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- Sourced, dated, and reviewed on a cycle.
Sourced, dated, and reviewed on a cycle.
Technical notes written by the people who perform the work, grounded in the standards and regulations themselves. Every article shows its author, its technical reviewer, its review cycle and its primary sources.
12 articles
Everything we have published.
Filter by category. Every article carries its primary sources and the date it was last reviewed.
GHG assurance
What a GHG verifier actually examines
A verification is a structured examination against stated criteria — not a document review. What gets tested, in what order, and what makes a conclusion possible.
ISO certification
Verification or certification: which one does your buyer want?
Two different conformity assessment activities, two standards, two accreditations, two outputs — and one very common procurement error.
GHG assurance
Six evidence gaps that delay verification
Almost every first-cycle delay comes from the same six places. None of them is a calculation error, and all six are fixable before the engagement starts.
GHG assurance
Reasonable or limited assurance: choosing before you procure
Not a service tier. The level of assurance changes the testing, the evidence, the wording of the conclusion — and what a reader is entitled to take from it.
Product carbon
Product carbon footprint or EPD: two different deliverables
One is a single verified impact figure. The other is a published multi-indicator declaration under a programme and a PCR. Buying the wrong one costs a year.
CBAM
CBAM: actual values or default values
Default values are permitted only where actual values cannot be determined. For a low-intensity producer, accepting them is an avoidable cost passed to the customer.
GHG assurance
Boundaries and categories: reading ISO 14064-1:2018 correctly
The 2018 edition reports direct emissions plus five indirect categories, and asks you to justify which indirect emissions you included. Inventories still built on three scopes need translating.
Energy and environment
Carbon neutrality claims under ISO 14068-1:2023
A neutrality claim is not a purchase of credits. ISO 14068-1:2023 requires a defined subject, a quantified footprint, a plan, a reduction hierarchy and offsetting that meets criteria — in that order.
Regulatory updates
How to read an accreditation certificate before you appoint anyone
A certificate proves less than most buyers assume. The schedule behind it is where the answer is — and it is the document least often requested.
Energy and environment
ISO 50001 data and GHG inventories: what actually transfers
An energy management system already holds most of your Category 1 and 2 data. Getting it into verifiable shape is a smaller job than starting from nothing — but it is not zero.
Product carbon
Cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave: the boundary decides
Two studies of the same product can differ by a factor of three and both be correct. The difference is the boundary — and the customer specified one of them.
Categories
Six categories, each with its own page.
GHG assurance
What a verification tests, how assurance levels differ, where evidence gaps appear, and how ISO 14064-1:2018 boundaries and categories are actually applied.
Open categoryCBAM
The definitive regime, calculation methods, verification principles and verifier accreditation — with the instrument and the date behind every statement.
Open categoryISO certification
Two conformity assessment activities, two standards, two outputs — and the procurement error that shows up latest.
Open categoryProduct carbon
Where a product footprint stops, what a declared unit has to state, and why two correct studies of the same product can differ by a factor of three.
Open categoryEnergy and environment
Energy management systems, carbon neutrality claims, and the parts of each that do not carry across to the other.
Open categoryRegulatory updates
Every item here carries the instrument behind it and the date it was checked. Where we cannot source a claim, we do not publish it.
Open category
Editorial rule
What we publish, and what we do not.
Every factual statement here carries a primary source and a checked date. We cite the instruments themselves — the Official Journal of the European Union, the European Commission, ISO and ISO/IEC standards, IAF documents and accreditation bodies — rather than secondary reporting about them.
We do not publish client names, unverifiable business metrics, or accreditation claims beyond what has been granted. We do not describe CBAM verification as accredited before formal grant. When an instrument changes, we review the affected pages and update the review date shown on them.
These articles are general technical material. They are not advice on a specific engagement, they create no contractual relationship, and they commit the body to no conclusion in any future engagement.
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.