Default values (CBAM)

The fallback emissions figures an importer must use when actual data is not supplied. They are conservative by design, which means high.

When an importer cannot produce actual embedded emissions for a good, they fall back on default values published by the Commission.

Defaults exist so that missing data cannot become an advantage. They are therefore set cautiously — high enough that supplying real figures is normally the cheaper answer. That is the whole commercial argument for measuring properly: not compliance for its own sake, but the gap between a conservative default and your actual number.

How large that gap is depends on the default and on your production. Anyone quoting you a fixed saving without both is guessing.

CBAM The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism: importers of certain goods must declare — and eventually pay for — the emissions embedded in them.
Embedded emissions The greenhouse gases released in producing a good, expressed per tonne of that good rather than per site or per year.
Primary data Data measured at its source — your meter, your supplier's actual production — as opposed to an industry average.