Official CBAM Certificate Price for Q1 2026 Published

For Q1 2026, the price is EUR 75.36/tCO₂. This is an important moment not only for the architecture of the CBAM mechanism itself, but above all for businesses importing CBAM-covered goods into the European Union. For the first time, the market has an official reference point that makes it possible to translate regulatory obligations into specific cost calculations.

At this stage, one point should be made clear: publication of the price does not mean that importers are already purchasing CBAM certificates. Sales of certificates are not due to begin until February 2027, and will relate to embedded emissions in goods imported in 2026. In other words, 2026 is the first year in which CBAM has a real financial parameter, but it is not yet the year in which importers physically purchase certificates.

That does not diminish the significance of this publication. The price of EUR 75.36/tCO₂ was set as the quarterly weighted average of EU ETS allowance auction prices for the period from January to March 2026. The Commission clearly states that it will publish four quarterly prices throughout 2026, while from 2027 the system will move to weekly price publication. This approach shows that the EU legislator is deliberately creating a transition from a period of modelling and preparation to full operational CBAM settlement.

For importers, the practical consequence is clear: CBAM is no longer solely a reporting obligation and has become an item that can be priced. The official quarterly price makes it possible to begin estimating the impact of CBAM on margins, pricing policy, total procurement cost and negotiations with suppliers outside the European Union. In many cases, this is when businesses will begin to test whether their existing assumptions about the profitability of imports remain valid once the cost of embedded emissions is taken into account.

From a business-management perspective, publication of the first CBAM price matters in at least three areas.

First, it is a signal for procurement and logistics teams. Importers should now analyse not only the volumes and origin of goods, but also embedded-emissions data and the quality of information received from suppliers. Without this, even formally correct reporting may not be sufficient to reliably estimate the future cost of purchasing certificates.

Second, it is an important moment for finance and controlling. Since an official reference price is now available, businesses can develop more reliable cost scenarios for 2026 and 2027. For some companies, this will require a revision of budgets, profitability analyses for particular import routes, and a review of transfer-pricing models and commercial contracts.

Third, publication of the price increases the importance of relationships with suppliers outside the EU. Importers that do not have organised access to embedded-emissions data will be at an increasingly weaker negotiating position. In practice, competitive advantage may depend not only on the price of the goods themselves, but also on the quality and reliability of environmental data provided by the manufacturer. CBAM is therefore beginning to affect not only regulatory compliance, but also the very structure of supply chains.

It is also worth remembering that the system is not limited to the subsequent surrender of certificates. As a rule, authorised CBAM declarants will have to surrender certificates annually and, in addition, ensure that the number of certificates held in their registry account at the end of each quarter corresponds to at least 80% of the embedded emissions in goods imported since the beginning of the year. This means that CBAM was designed from the outset as a mechanism affecting liquidity, procurement planning and the ongoing management of cost exposure.

The timetable for further publications will also be important for many businesses. The Commission has already announced the dates of the remaining quarterly CBAM certificate prices for 2026: the Q2 price is to be published on 6 July 2026, the Q3 price on 5 October 2026, and the Q4 price on 4 January 2027. This means that businesses will receive regular price signals throughout 2026, enabling them to update financial assumptions and compare the trajectory of emissions costs with developments in the EU ETS market.

From a business perspective, the most important conclusion is straightforward. CBAM has entered a stage at which businesses can no longer treat it solely as a compliance project or as an issue for the future. With an official reference price now available, the mechanism can—and must—be translated into specific figures: import costs, margins, contract profitability, procurement policy and the structure of discussions with suppliers. For some importers, 2026 will in practice be the final period in which they can organise their data, calculation models and contractual assumptions before actual certificate purchases begin in 2027.

Viewed more broadly, the first official CBAM certificate price is symbolically significant. It shows that the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism is ceasing to be merely a regulatory concept and is becoming a system with a measurable financial burden. In practice, this is the point at which the real discussion will begin—not about whether CBAM exists, but about who in the supply chain will ultimately bear its cost and how that cost will be allocated between the importer, supplier and final customer.

Contact us: Łukasz Pamuła, Senior Manager, lukasz.pamula@thedy.pl