The European Commission has published the second quarterly CBAM certificate price: €75.28 per tonne of CO₂ equivalent. This is the official Q2 2026 price, published on July 6, 2026. It applies to all certificates covering imports of steel, cement, aluminium, fertilizers, electricity, and hydrogen made between April 1 and June 30, 2026.
The new price sits €0.08 below the Q1 2026 price of €75.36/tCO₂e, a decline of roughly 0.1 percent. Two data points now define the first year of the definitive phase, and both fall within a band of eight cents. The CBAM certificate price tracker and the CBAM cost calculator have been updated with the official figure. The price tracker also offers email alerts that notify you when each new official price is published.
How the Q2 2026 price was calculated
The Q2 2026 CBAM certificate price is €75.28/tCO₂e, calculated as the weighted average of all EU ETS auction clearing prices recorded between April 1 and June 30, 2026. The calculation method is set by Article 22(1a) of Regulation (EU) 2023/956, inserted by the Omnibus amendment (Regulation (EU) 2025/2083): the Commission computes the weighted average of the auction clearing prices of the auctioned EU ETS allowances for the quarter, rounds it to two decimal places, and publishes the result in the first calendar week after the quarter closes.
The EU ETS price traded in a narrower range during Q2 than during Q1, when auctions cleared between approximately €66 and €90 per tonne. The near-identical quarterly averages mean that importers who modeled their 2026 certificate liability on the Q1 figure need no material revision to their cost planning.
What the Q2 price means for importers
The Q2 2026 price is the reference value for all certificates attributable to second-quarter imports. Three practical consequences follow.
First, half of the 2026 certificate liability is now fixed. An importer can multiply verified Q2 embedded emissions by the 2.5 percent CBAM factor and by €75.28 to get an exact Q2 cost. For a blast furnace steel importer bringing in 10,000 tonnes with approximately 20,000 tCO₂ of embedded emissions, the Q2 liability is 500 certificates at €75.28 each, a cost of €37,640 for the quarter. The equivalent Q1 cost was €37,680.
Second, the stability between Q1 and Q2 reduces forecasting risk for the September 30, 2027 declaration. The total 2026 obligation is the sum of four quarterly calculations, and two of the four inputs are now known. Importers building certificate budgets ahead of the February 1, 2027 sales opening can work from a 2026 average of €75.32 across the two published quarters.
Third, the quarterly averaging mechanism demonstrated its smoothing effect. Daily EU ETS prices moved several euros within the quarter, but the weighted average absorbed those swings. CBAM certificate purchases will be priced at these official averages, not at daily spot prices.
Published and pending 2026 certificate prices
| Quarter | Period | Publication date | Certificate price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | Jan 1 – Mar 31 | April 7, 2026 | €75.36/tCO₂e |
| Q2 2026 | Apr 1 – Jun 30 | July 6, 2026 | €75.28/tCO₂e |
| Q3 2026 | Jul 1 – Sep 30 | October 5, 2026 | Pending |
| Q4 2026 | Oct 1 – Dec 31 | January 4, 2027 | Pending |
Each quarterly price applies only to that quarter's imports. The first annual CBAM declaration, due September 30, 2027, covers all of calendar year 2026 and uses all four quarterly prices.
What happens next
The Q3 2026 price is due in the first week of October 2026. From January 1, 2027, the pricing method changes: Article 22(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 sets the 2027 formula as the weekly average of EU ETS auction closing prices, published every Monday. Compliance teams that currently check the certificate price four times a year will need to track a price that updates 52 times a year.
For the mechanism behind certificate pricing and the full compliance chain from authorization to surrender, read the EU CBAM guide.