India’s bid to keep carbon cash home as Europe adds a new trade cost

For Indian exporters, the price tag has a new line item: carbon. What once went up the smokestack could soon show up on the export bill, as carbon emissions increasingly become a cost of selling products overseas.

The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has entered its definitive phase in January 2026.

CBAM, essentially, puts a carbon cost on imports into the European Union. It requires EU importers to pay for emissions embedded in select carbon-intensive goods (based on carbon emissions during production) they import. The CBAM obligation is linked to the EU carbon price, while any carbon price already effectively paid on those emissions in the country of production can be deducted.

Please visit our youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ikargosindia for fortnightly logistics news analysis and more!