First CBAM verifiers accredited as the assurance market opens
Until late September there was no accredited CBAM verifier anywhere. That has changed. On 23 September the Athens-based verification body EmiCert announced that Greece's national accreditation body, ESYD, had accredited it to verify embedded emissions under CBAM across all six sectors. Bureau Veritas announced its own CBAM accreditation on 29 September, and TÜV Rheinland is also reported to be accredited.
Why the first names matter
When registry access for verifiers opened on 1 September, the missing piece was any one qualified to use it. Only an accredited verifier registered in the CBAM Registry can issue a valid verification report, and only a verified report lets an importer declare actual emissions in place of default values. With accreditations now being granted, the chain from installation data to declaration can function.
Accreditation is granted by activity group, so a body accredited for one sector cannot automatically verify another. A verifier must also apply to register in the CBAM Registry within two months of being accredited. Importers should ask a prospective verifier which CBAM sectors its accreditation covers, and whether its registration is complete.
New Commission resources
On 28 September the Commission published an overview of its resources for verifiers. It brings together the guidance on verification and accreditation, the registry access procedure and the user documents for the registry's portal. Three training videos went up the same day. They cover applying to become a registered verifier, submitting change requests, and managing collaboration requests with operators of installations outside the EU.
The Commission's timeline has verifiers issuing their first verification reports from January 2027. Operators can then share those reports with the importers they supply.
The capacity picture
The Commission's state-of-play report on accreditation, dated 29 September, shows24 national accreditation bodies that have agreed to offer CBAM accreditation, with at least 16 ready to accept applications. Seven have agreed to accredit verifiers based outside the EU, and five are already taking those applications. Greece and Portugal now appear on the ready list.
Those numbers are rising slowly. Every importer who wants to declare actual emissions for 2026 needs a signed report before the 30 September 2027 deadline. Most installations will need a physical site visit in this first cycle, because the Commission's guidance allows a virtual visit only where a physical one took place in the preceding reporting period. Compliance firms are already warning of a shortage of verification capacity in early 2027, with the largest sites likely to be served first.
There is one helpful detail in the guidance. A prospective verifier can sign a contract with an operator and begin preliminary work before its accreditation certificate is issued. It cannot issue the verification report until it is accredited and registered, but the early steps need not wait.
What to do now
Importers relying on actual data should rank their suppliers by volume and emissions, and get the top few into a verifier's diary first. Suppliers should expect to show monitoring plans, meter records and precursor data to someone working to reasonable assurance. UK exporters are in the same position as any other non-EU producer. Their EU customers will be asking for verified installation data, and much of the same evidence will be needed for HMRC's scheme from January.
CBAM-Assured provides MRV services and training that prepare emissions data for this level of scrutiny; contact us before the verification queue forms.