Highlights:

• The implementation of CBAM will protect the competitiveness of the economy and enable the preservation of existing jobs as well as the creation of new ones in Polish and European Union industry.
• CBAM, or the carbon border adjustment mechanism, will be levied on selected industrial goods imported into the European Union – cement, electricity, fertilisers, cast iron and steel, aluminium, and hydrogen.
• It is intended to help companies producing goods in Poland and the EU. Its imposition on imported products will eliminate the competitive advantage resulting from the fact that companies operating outside the EU do not pay for carbon dioxide emissions.
• In the future, CBAM is to be extended to other goods corresponding to activities covered by the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). 
• The draft law prepared by the Ministry of Climate and Environment implements the EU regulation into the Polish legal system.

The CBAM mechanism will improve the situation of EU industrial producers, such as steel manufacturers in Poland. Today, they are subject to emission costs, while companies from third countries do not have to bear them. The introduction of CBAM will offset the imbalance in climate policy costs that European companies currently have to pay. We are already working on extending this form of protection for EU markets. In the autumn, partly due to pressure from Poland, the Commission will propose a revision of the system and its extension to other industries

– said Krzysztof Bolesta, Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment.

The draft act establishes national authorities responsible for implementing CBAM, creates procedures and ensures funding for the implementation of measures. The draft also provides for the financing of the Centre for Climate and Energy Analysis (CAKE), which is a strong and stable analytical base for the implementation of climate policy.

The CBAM mechanism is a new element of EU climate policy and is intended to complement the EU ETS system. It is designed to mitigate the risk of ‘carbon leakage’ and prevent companies with high-emission production from relocating from the European Union to countries with less stringent climate policies and replacing EU products with imports with higher carbon dioxide emissions.

CBAM will eliminate the competitive advantage of producers from non-EU countries placing products on the European market, who have not been subject to the charges incurred by Polish and European companies under the EU ETS. It is intended to encourage emission reductions outside the EU and to eliminate cost differences between products manufactured in the EU (burdened by the costs of participating in the ETS) and products imported from outside the Union. 

Entrepreneurs from Poland and the EU will benefit

The introduction of new regulations will benefit entrepreneurs from Poland and other EU countries, as CBAM will allow them to level the playing field with entrepreneurs from non-EU countries who import goods to the European market. An additional benefit will be the mobilisation of non-EU producers to reduce emissions. 

A transition period will last until December 2025, allowing companies and third countries to prepare for their obligations under the CBAM. During this time, the only obligation is for importers of goods covered by the CBAM to submit quarterly reports.

Thereafter, started from the beginning of 2026, importers will declare annually the quantity of goods imported into the EU in the previous year and the associated embedded emissions, and bear the cost of CBAM certificates in proportion to them.