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Climate Action
News article26 March 2020Directorate-General for Climate Action

Emissions reporting for the EU Emissions Trading System and information on release of verified emissions data and compliance information for 2019

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Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, some operators and Member States’ Competent Authorities may be facing difficulties in submitting verified emissions reports by the end of March.

It is recalled that the ETS Directive and its implementing measures provide for operators to submit verified emissions reports covering the previous year’s emissions by 31 March each year, [1] and for each operator to surrender a number of allowances equal to its total emissions in 2019 by 30 April 2020. [2]

The Commission underlines the importance of the timely surrender of allowances by the mandatory deadline of 30 April 2020.

In the interest of ensuring timely submission of emissions reports necessary for compliance with the obligation to surrender allowances, the Commission would like to recall that:

- Article 31 of Regulation 2018/2067 [3] allows for site visits not to be carried out under certain conditions set out in Article 32 of that Regulation;

- Article 70 of Regulation 601/2012 [4] concerns inter alia situations in which operators of installations do not submit a verified report by the 31 March deadline. In these cases, competent authorities can make a conservative estimate of the emissions of the installation or aircraft operator, which must be done in sufficient time in April in order for the respective operator to fulfil its surrender obligation by 30 April.

For the conservative estimate, it is recalled that a set of assumptions should be defined in order to ensure that no under-estimation of annual emissions or over-estimation of tonne-kilometres occurs, including for example using non- verified emissions or verified emissions for 2018 as a starting point, and making assumptions ensuring that the estimate is in line with Commission Regulation 601/2012.

Access to data

In accordance with the practice in preceding years, on 1 April 2020 at 12:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST), the European Commission will grant unlimited access to installation-level 2019 verified emissions data on the European Union Transaction Log (EUTL) website. Any emissions data arriving later is published continuously on the EUTL website and on 15 April, the complete data set will also be published in an Excel spreadsheet on the Union Registry page of this website. Access to this data will be granted irrespective of the amount of data available. No aggregate data or interpretation will be made available.

On 4 May 2020 at 12:00 CEST, the European Commission will publish on the EUTL website the installation-level compliance code for 2019, based on the data available on 30 April, setting out whether an operator surrendered the required amount of allowances. The compliance information data will also be published on 4 May 2020 at 16:00 CEST in an Excel spreadsheet on the Union Registry page of this website.

In respect of a proportion of emissions during 2019, Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) may be exchanged rather than used for compliance with the surrender obligation directly. The Commission will therefore publish a regulatory update on 6 May 2020 at 12:00 CEST setting out the aggregate number of CERs which have been exchanged for EU ETS allowances by 30 April 2020.

The term "installation" should be understood as referring either to a fixed installation or an aircraft operator in this regulatory update.

[1] Article 14(3) of the ETS Directive (Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Union and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC) provides for operators of an installation within the scope of this Directive to monitor and report the emissions from that installation during each calendar year, or, from 1 January 2010, the aircraft which it operates, to the competent authority after the end of that year in accordance with the implementing legislation.

Article 15 of the ETS Directive provides for reports submitted by operators and aircraft operators pursuant to Article 14(3) to be verified, in accordance with the criteria set out in Annex V of the ETS Directive and in implementing measures, by 31 March of each year for emissions during the preceding year.

Article 67 of Commission Regulation (EU) No 601/2012 on the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council requires operators of installations to submit to the competent authority by 31 March of each year an emission report that covers the emissions during the preceding year and that is verified in accordance with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2067.

[2] Article 12(3) of the ETS Directive.

[3] Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2067 on the verification of data and on the accreditation of verifiers pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

[4] Commission Regulation (EU) No 601/2012 of 21 June 2012 on the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Details

Publication date
26 March 2020
Author
Directorate-General for Climate Action