# Does hydro power make Quebec aluminium cheaper under CBAM?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/quebec-hydro-aluminium-cbam-figure

Not directly. For aluminium only direct emissions are charged: anode carbon and PFCs. Quebec smelters' hydro power lowers their product footprint, not the CBAM figure. A Quebec carbon market price can be deducted only to the extent it is effectively paid.

## What the CBAM figure counts

- CO2 from anode consumption in the pots.
- PFCs from anode effects.
- Fuel used in the cast house and anode baking on site.

## Where hydro helps

Buyers' cradle to gate footprints include electricity, and hydro power makes Quebec metal one of the lowest-carbon sources on that basis. That helps with buyer targets even though the CBAM figure stays the same.

## Carbon price

Quebec runs a cap-and-trade system in which smelters receive free allowances. Only the price effectively paid beyond that allocation can be deducted.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel, electricity and production documents into dated, fingerprinted installation records, the starting point for the actual emissions an EU importer asks for.

- [Puerto Madryn hydro aluminium](https://senseible.earth/answers/puerto-madryn-aluminium-hydro-cbam)
- [Korba aluminium direct emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/korba-aluminium-cbam-direct-emissions-pfc)
- [Smelter anode CO2 per tonne](https://senseible.earth/answers/jharsuguda-smelter-anode-co2-per-tonne)

Sources: [CBAM Regulation (EU) 2023/956, consolidated](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/956/2025-10-20), [Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1773, monitoring rules](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/1773/oj/eng), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.