CBAM default values by country. What your EU buyer declares when you send no data.

A CBAM default value is the specific embedded emissions figure, in tonnes of CO₂e per tonne of good, that the European Commission publishes for a CBAM good from a given country of production. It stands in for the actual emissions of the installation that made the good.

The values sit in Annex I of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621, which applies from 1 January 2026. Annex I has one table per listed country and a final table called “Other countries and territories”. Each row gives a CN or TARIC code, a description, and three values: direct emissions, indirect emissions and total emissions. A last column shows the production route that decides the CBAM benchmark, for example (C) carbon steel from a blast furnace route or (K) primary aluminium.

Three more annexes complete the set: Annex II gives default factors for indirect emissions, Annex III gives default values for electricity imported as a good, and Annex IV gives the values for a precursor whose country of production cannot be identified.

The method comes from Annex IV of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 and is explained in the recitals of the implementing regulation:

• Values are based on the most up-to-date and reliable information for each exporting country.
• Where neither data from the Joint Research Centre nor data collected in the transitional period is reliable enough, the value is the average of the ten exporting countries with the highest emission intensities for that type of good.
• A mark-up is then added to cover installations that emit more than their country’s average. It is based on how far EU installations deviate from the EU average.

The regulation says the default values and mark-ups will be revised in 2027 at the latest.

Since the 2025 simplification (Regulation (EU) 2025/2083), Article 7(2) of the CBAM Regulation lets embedded emissions in goods other than electricity be determined either from actual emissions or by reference to default values. The authorised CBAM declarant may therefore declare default values for any good. Actual emissions must be verified by an accredited verifier before they can be declared.

Which table applies is set out at the top of Annex I:

• If the country of production is listed and the good has a value, that value applies.
• If the country is not listed, or is listed but the field shows “–”, the value from “Other countries and territories” applies.
• For a precursor whose country of production cannot be identified, Annex IV applies: the value of the third country with the highest emission intensity for that precursor.

An operator can also mix the two: actual emissions for its own processes and default values for a purchased precursor, under Article 15 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2547.

On 20 July 2026 the Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740, published in the Official Journal on 31 July 2026. It replaces Annexes I and IV of IR (EU) 2025/2621 in full and applies retroactively from 1 January 2026. The changes that matter in the Western Balkans:

• The printed mark-up columns are gone. The final marked-up value is now calculated in the CBAM Registry from the “total emissions” column. The direct and indirect columns are given for information only.
• Albania gained a value for ferro-chromium (CN 7202 41), which had been omitted and had defaulted to the “Other countries and territories” table.
• Clinker and cement are split by TARIC code into white and grey (2523 10 00 10 / 90 and 2523 90 00 10 / 90), and calcined clay became TARIC 2507 00 80 80.
• Units are stated on every column, and missing or wrong production route letters were added or fixed.

Every table on these pages is taken from the corrected Annex I.

Actual emissions go into the declaration as calculated and verified. A default goes in with 10% added in 2026, 20% in 2027 and 30% from 2028. Even for a plant whose actual emissions only equal the base default, the marked-up default from 2028 is 30% higher than what it declares.

Kosovo is not listed at all, and Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia have no values for some sectors. Goods from those countries take the “Other countries and territories” value. For reinforcing bar that is 3.996 tCO₂e/t against 2.340 for Bosnia and Herzegovina and 1.530 for North Macedonia.

Most steel defaults outside North Macedonia carry route (C), carbon steel from a blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace. A plant that melts scrap in an electric arc furnace, or that only rolls and finishes bought-in billets, has a different emissions profile. A default cannot see that difference. Actual data can.

For cement and fertilisers, indirect emissions from electricity are part of the charge. The default indirect value assumes a typical electricity consumption per tonne. With actual data, indirect emissions come from your own metered consumption multiplied by the country’s electricity emission factor, so an efficient plant on a hydro-heavy grid, such as Albania’s, carries little indirect emissions. Iron and steel, aluminium and hydrogen are charged on direct emissions only, which is why their indirect column reads N/A.

The grid factors themselves are explained on electricity emission factors by country.