The CBAM Communication Template: How Producers Get Data to Importers

When your EU customer asks for CBAM data, the file landing in your inbox will most likely be an Excel workbook: the Commission’s CBAM communication template for installations. This article explains what the template is, which data it asks for and where to start — from a producer’s point of view.

Ground rules first: the information here is taken from the Commission’s official pages; the template itself and worked example files are free to download from the Commission’s communication page.

What the template is for

In CBAM the obligation sits with the importer but the data sits with the producer — the communication template is the bridge. The Commission published this Excel file so that installation operators can transmit embedded-emissions data to importers in a standard, machine-processable form. It is not mandatory; it became the de facto standard because the software and consultants on the importer side expect it.

At the time of writing, the current version on the Commission page is the publication of 18 December 2024 (file version en_20241213). Download the current file from the Commission page before you start — a workbook filled in on an old version means a correction round on the importer’s side.

Which data does it ask for?

For one monitoring period (as a rule, the calendar year), the workbook collects these blocks:

• Installation identity: name, location, contact details and the CBAM goods categories produced.
• Production processes and quantities: which aggregated goods category you produce on which route, and the period’s production quantities.
• Emissions and energy: fuel consumption, process emissions and the data behind the emissions calculation.
• Purchased precursors: quantities of in-scope inputs such as billet, clinker or unwrought aluminium and — where your supplier provided them — their embedded-emissions values.
• The result: specific embedded emissions (SEE) per good and the summary to be communicated to the importer.

The Commission has also published filled-in example files by sector: cement, aluminium, fertilisers, hydrogen and steel (with blast furnace, EAF and fasteners examples). Working with your sector’s example open next to you prevents the most common mistakes from the start.

O3CI: how to avoid sending the file to every customer separately

Sending the workbook to each importer separately becomes unmanageable quickly for a producer with several customers. For this the Commission opened a module of the CBAM registry dedicated to non-EU installation operators: O3CI (Operators of Third Country Installations). You upload your installation and emissions data once and choose which declarants can access it.

Our practical advice is to think of the two channels together: prepare the data with the template’s discipline, and share it via O3CI where possible. If a customer asks for the Excel anyway, it is already at hand.

Where to start

1. Draw the boundaries: which installations, which goods categories, which monitoring period. With several installations, each is filled in separately.
2. Connect the data sources: fuel invoices, production records, electricity meters, precursor purchase records. Every number the template asks for needs a record at the installation — that is the first question at verification.
3. Calibrate with an estimate first: before filling in the template, produce a rough SEE with our embedded emissions estimator and compare it with your default value. If the result sits clearly below the default, reporting actual data carries real negotiating value.
4. Follow the sector example: keep the Commission’s filled-in example for your sector open; it is the most reliable guide on category choices and units.

Three common mistakes

• Filling in an old version. Always check the version on the Commission page.
• Leaving precursor data empty. If you buy billet or clinker and your supplier gave no data, the precursor enters the calculation at the default value — and can raise your total unexpectedly. Send your supplier the data request early.
• Writing numbers without records. Every value in the template needs evidence behind it. Unverifiable data can end worse than the default value: it also costs you your importer’s trust.

Sources: European Commission — CBAM communication and FAQs (template and example files); CBAM Registry and O3CI. This article is informational; work from the current official publications when preparing declarations.