On 14 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals setting out how it intends to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050, including the intermediate target of an at least 55% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The package proposes to revise several pieces of EU climate legislation, including the EU ETS, Effort Sharing Regulation, transport and land use legislation, setting out in real terms the ways in which the Commission intends to reach EU climate targets under the European Green Deal.
The monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions must be robust, transparent, consistent and accurate for the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) to operate effectively.
Annual compliance cycle
The annual procedure of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), together with all the associated processes, is known as the ETS compliance cycle.
Industrial installations and aircraft operators covered by the EU ETS are required to have an approved monitoring plan for monitoring and reporting annual emissions. This plan is also part of the permit to operate required for industrial installations.
Every year, operators must submit an emissions report. The data for a given year must be verified by an accredited verifier by 31 March of the following year. Once verified, operators must surrender the equivalent number of allowances by 30 April of that year.
The rules related to the compliance cycle are set out in two regulations:
Guidance and support
To promote administrative efficiency and a harmonised approach across countries, the European Commission provides templates as the basis for:
- monitoring plans
- annual emission reports (including tonne-kilometre reporting by aviation operators)
- verification reports
- improvement reports.
Guidance, exemplars and further tools are also published to support correct understanding of the requirements of the regulations as well as promote more harmonised and cost-effective application throughout all EU ETS countries.
For more information, including quick guides that provide a summary of the main requirements and relevant guidance, templates, exemplars and tools for each EU ETS responsibility, see the Documentation below.
Further tools for aviation operators
Additional tools and guidance have been developed for aviation operators.
Small emitters (less than 25 000 tonnes of CO2 per year) can:
- determine their fuel consumption and CO2 emissions using Eurocontrol's simplified monitoring tool
- verify their emissions using data from the ETS support facility, without any modification.
The Commission has also issued
- Guidelines to the national authorities on the detailed interpretation of the aviation activities that are within the scope of the EU ETS
- Guidance to verifiers, elaborating on some aviation-specific issues with a particular focus on reports of small non-commercial aircraft operators using Eurocontrol's small emitters’ tool
Penalty for excessive emissions
Operators in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) must surrender annually the number of allowances corresponding to their emissions in the preceding year. For each tonne of emissions for which no allowance is surrendered in due time, there is a penalty of EUR 100. This is on top of the cost of surrendering allowances due. Names of the penalised operators are also disclosed to the public.
Since 2012, the penalty of EUR 100 per tonne of emissions of CO2 or the equivalent amount of N2O or PFCs (which are greenhouse gases the EU ETS regulates) increases annually in line with the European consumer price index, in accordance with Article 16(4) of the ETS Directive. The reference to the "European index of consumer prices" should be understood as referring to the European Union Consumer Price Index (CPI), to the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) of the European Union or to the Eurozone CPI/HICP.
The index used to calculate the increase in consumer prices since 2012 applied to the €100 penalty for non-compliance in the EU ETS is the HICP (specifically, the European index of consumer prices - EICP).
To calculate the penalty increase, either a cumulative or annual update can be used. The ETS Directive excludes the penalty decreasing below €100 if the HICP change since 2012 were to be a decrease.
You may use the HICP published in the Eurostat database "HICP (2005 = 100) - annual data (average index and rate of change) (prc_hicp_aind)".
- 27/09/2024 - Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2493 of 23 September 2024 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 as regards updating the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- 01/07/2024 - Consolidated version of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 on the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.
- 14/05/2024 - Consolidated version of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2067 on the verification of data and on the accreditation of verifiers
- 17/10/2023 - Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2122 of 17 October 2023 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 as regards updating the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- 18/07/2019 - Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1603 supplementing Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards measures adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation for the monitoring, reporting and verification of aviation emissions for the purpose of implementing a global market-based measure
- 21/06/2012 - SWD(2012) 177 - Impact Assessment accompanying the Commission Regulation 601/2012 and Commission Regulation 600/2012
- 01/03/2022 - Quick guide for operators of stationary installations
- 01/03/2022 - Quick guide for aircraft operators
- 01/03/2022 - Quick guide for competent authorities
- 21/03/2022 - Quick guide for verifiers
- 21/03/2022 - Quick guide for national accreditation bodies
- 20/02/2023 - Guidance document No. 1 - The Monitoring and Reporting Regulation – General guidance for installations
- 15/12/2023 - Template No. 1: Monitoring plan for the emissions of stationary installations
- User Manual for the AER template
- Template No. 4: Annual emissions report of stationary source installations
- Template No. 7: Improvement report for stationary installations
- User Manual for the IR template
- 05/2024 - Unreasonable costs determination tool
- Exemplar checklist for assessing installation MPs
- Exemplar monitoring plan
- Exemplar MRR Article 13 Simplified Monitoring Plan
- Exemplar improvement report
- Exemplar monitoring plan update
- 29/05/2023 - Guidance document No. 2 - The Monitoring and Reporting Regulation – General guidance for aircraft operators
- 17/10/2022 - Guidance document No. 3 - Biomass issues
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No. 4 - Uncertainty Assessment
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No. 5 - Sampling and Analysis
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No. 6 - Data flow activities and control system
- 24/01/2022 - Guidance document No. 8 - EU ETS Inspections
- 03/02/2022 - The Accreditation and Verification Regulation - Explanatory Guidance Document No.1
- 03/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.1 on the scope of verification
- 03/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.2 on risk analysis
- 20/12/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.3 on process analysis
- 03/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.4 on sampling
- 12/2020 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.5 on site visits concerning installations
- 31/01/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.6 on the verification report
- 09/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.7 on competence of verifiers
- 21/03/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.8 on the relation between EN ISO 14065 and AVR
- 10/01/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.9 on the relation between EN ISO/IEC 17011 and AVR
- 10/01/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.10 on information exchange
- Information exchange template No. 1 - Notification template (Article 77 AVR) from the verifier to the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority (by 15 November each year)
- Information exchange template No. 2 - Work programme (Article 71(1) AVR) from the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority to the Competent Authority (by 31 December each year)
- Information exchange template No. 3 - Management report (Article 71(3) AVR) from the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority to the Competent Authority (by 1 June each year)
- Information exchange template No. 4 - Information exchange (Article 73 AVR) from the Competent Authority to the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority (recommended by 30 September each year)
- 27/11/2017 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.11 on certification
- 10/01/2022 - Guidance document – Key guidance note II.12 on time allocation in verification
- 03/02/2022 - The Accreditation and Verification Regulation - Verification Guidance for EU ETS Aviation (GD III)
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No.7 – The Monitoring and Reporting Regulation and Accreditation and Verification Regulation – Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS)
- 20/12/2013 - Conservative estimate of emissions
- 20/12/2013 - Review of the annual emissions report and verification report
- 17/10/2023 - Training Event: New developments in the EU ETS from 2024
- 10/10/2023 - Training Event: Introduction to EU ETS Monitoring & Reporting
- 05/2023 - MRVA training event on biomass
- 09/2020 - A&V training event: 2020 Handbook
- 16/09/2021 - Annual activity level verification
- 26/11/2020 - M&R training event: roadmap through M&R Guidance
- 27/11/2019 - M&R training event: unreasonable costs, uncertainty assessment and data gaps
- 15/11/2018 - Training on Round Robin Test
- 09/2017 - A&V Training Handbook
- 20/06/2017 - M&R training webinar on Sampling Plans
- 14-15/09/2016 - 2016 A&V training event
- 31/05/2016 - M&R training event on Uncertainty Assessment
- 08/09/2015 - A&V training event
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2023
- Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/919 of 8 June 2022 amending Commission Decision 2005/381/EC as regards the questionnaire for reporting on the application of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- Explanatory Note
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2022
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2021
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2020
- Commission Implementing Decision 2014/166/EU as regards the questionnaire for reporting on the application of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- Explanatory Note
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2019
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2018
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2017
Monitoring and reporting guidelines
- 16/04/2009 - Monitoring and reporting guidelines
Verification guidance for aviation
- 30/11/2010 - EU ETS Verification Guidance for Aviation
Small emitters' tool
- 09/07/2010 - Commission Regulation (EU) No 606/2010 on the approval of a simplified tool developed by the European organisation for air safety navigation (Eurocontrol) to estimate the fuel consumption of certain small emitting aircraft operators
- Small emitters' tool developed by Eurocontrol
Guidance documents developed by Member States
- Guidance document prepared by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
- Questions and Answers report on the initiative of the Dutch Emissions Authority (December 2008)
- Frequently asked questions, done by the Aviation Implementation Task Force
- 19/01/2024 - Threshold and reporting obligation guidance for 2024-2026, 3rd edition, prepared by the Aviation Task Force
- 30/10/2023 - Threshold and reporting obligation guidance for 2023, 2nd edition, prepared by the Aviation Task Force
- 19/06/2024 - Technical guidance on supporting documentation required for zero-rating claims associated to sustainable biofuels for aviation in the EU ETS, prepared by the Aviation Task Force
Example monitoring plans
- Example emissions monitoring plan
- Example tonne-kilometre monitoring plan
- Example emissions data flow charts
- Example tonne-kilometre data flow charts