Embedded emissions

The greenhouse gases released in producing a good, expressed per tonne of that good rather than per site or per year.

Corporate carbon accounting asks “how much did this company emit last year”. Embedded emissions ask a narrower question: how much was emitted to make this tonne of steel, this batch of cement.

The distinction matters because CBAM attaches to goods, not to companies. A plant average is not an answer — two products from the same site can carry very different figures depending on the route, the fuel and the precursors that went into them.

Embedded emissions are split into direct (from the production process itself) and indirect (from the electricity and heat it consumed). Purchased precursors — the inputs that already carry their own footprint — are counted too, which is why an accurate figure usually depends on data from suppliers rather than from your own meters alone.

CBAM The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism: importers of certain goods must declare — and eventually pay for — the emissions embedded in them.
Precursor An input that already carries embedded emissions of its own — the steel in a bolt, the clinker in cement.
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) The greenhouse gases attributable to one unit of a product across a defined part of its life cycle.