Glossary
Installation – CBAM
Under the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a stationary technical unit where a production process for goods covered by CBAM is carried out. Operators outside the EU can register their installations in the CBAM registry.
- Legal source
- CBAM Regulation, Article 3(30) ↗
- Who it applies to
- Operators of installations outside the EU: any person that operates or controls an installation in a third country, including a parent company that controls one. In practice, these are producers of goods covered by CBAM, which can register their installations in the CBAM registry.
- Example
- A company in India runs a plant that makes steel bolts sold to EU importers, and a parent company controls the plant. The plant is the installation, and the company and its parent are both operators. If the company asks to register, its request gives the plant's complete address, its geographical coordinates in longitude and latitude to six decimals, and its main economic activity.
- Also known as
- CBAM installations, installation in a third country
The CBAM Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/956) defines an installation as a stationary technical unit where a production process is carried out. A production process means the chemical and physical processes carried out to produce goods in an installation, and goods means the goods listed in the Regulation's Annex I.
Commission guidance, not law: an installation is the site where goods covered by CBAM are produced, and it takes in all the chemical and physical processes that lead to goods under the same
A registered
In the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the word has its own definition, tied to the activities listed in the ETS Directive's Annex I and to associated activities on the same site: see
Our explainer for producers outside the EU covers registration and verification.
Regulations
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740 corrected Annexes I and IV of the default values act, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621
Used in
EU CBAM for producers and exporters outside the EU: registration, verification and who pays
Making steel, aluminium, cement or fertiliser in India or elsewhere outside the EU? What EU CBAM means for you: optional registration, verification, who pays.