What Is the CBAM Registry?

An Indian steel exporter recently received an email from its German buyer asking whether the shipment was covered under "Registry status." The exporter had not heard the term before and had no clear answer to give.

That kind of question is becoming more common. From September 1, 2026, the EU opened CBAM Registry access to accredited verifiers, a step that has pushed this system into sharper focus for exporters outside the EU who supply CBAM-covered goods.

This article explains what the CBAM Registry actually is, who uses it, and why understanding it is the first step to answering questions like the one above.

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM, is the European Union's system for pricing the carbon embedded in certain imported goods, including iron, steel, aluminium, cement, and fertiliser. The CBAM Registry is the digital infrastructure that sits underneath this system. It is a centralised IT platform, operated by the European Commission under Regulation (EU) 2023/956, where the EU records who is authorised to import CBAM goods and tracks the data those imports generate.

Three terms matter here. A declarant is the party, usually the EU-based importer of record, who takes on the legal obligation to report and eventually pay for embedded emissions. Embedded emissions are the greenhouse gases released in producing the imported good, measured per tonne of product. A CBAM certificate is the financial instrument declarants will purchase from 2027 onward to cover those emissions. The Registry exists to give the European Commission and national customs authorities a single, verifiable record of all three: who is authorised, what they are importing, and what emissions are attached to it.

The CBAM Registry is best understood as the record-keeping backbone of the carbon border adjustment mechanism, not a compliance milestone in itself. It confirms who is authorised to import CBAM goods and holds the emissions data tied to those imports.

For exporters outside the EU, the practical takeaway is straightforward: know your buyer's authorisation status, since the Registry entry belongs to them, and treat it as the first checkpoint in a longer compliance chain that runs through certificate purchases from 2027.