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Aviation in the EUETS from 2012

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Aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System from 2012

This section of the site provides information on the development of arrangements for regulating the aviation sector in the UK under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). This should be of interest predominantly to aircraft operators who will be regulated directly under the System.

In conjunction with DfT, Defra held a consultation on The European Commission’s draft legislative proposal for including aviation in the EU ETS in 2007, which is published on the Department for Transport's website. On 4 March 2009, DECC published a consultation on the first stage of passing the aviation directive into UK law. This consultation closed on 14 May 2009. The first stage Regulations were laid before Parliament on 27 August 2009, following the publication of the list of aircraft operators to be regulated by each Member State in the Official Journal of the European Union on 22 August 2009.

Latest News

 
Monday 9 August:

Laying of second stage Aviation EU ETS Regulations before Parliament.

We laid our second stage Regulations before Parliament on 6 August 2010. The Regulations complete the UK’s transposition of the Aviation EU ETS Directive (2008/101/EC). The Regulations will come into force on 31 August 2010 and can be found, along with the Final Impact Assessment, at the Legislation.gov.uk: The Aviation Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2010 web page.

The summary and analysis of consultation responses are available from the Consultation on second stage transposition of EU Directive (2008/101/EC) to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) web page.

In addition a note of the breakout sessions held during the 19 February 2010 consultation stakeholder workshop has been added to the Friday 12 March update below.

Friday 12 March:

On 19 February 2010 the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Transport jointly held an event focussing on the key issues covered in the consultation on UK second stage transposition of the EU Directive (2008/101/EC) to include Aviation in the EU ETS.

Feedback received on the day will feed into the response to the consultation. For those who were unable to attend, presentations from the day giving an overview of the EU ETS and issues covered in the consultation are now available. Common questions brought onraised on the day are also addressed in the document below and a note of the breakout sessions held has been added below.

In addition, a video has been added to YouTube which summarises the themes covered of the day.

21 December 2009:

Consultation on second stage transposition of EU Directive (2008/101/EC) to include Aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Transport (DfT) launched a public consultation on 11 December to seek views on the draft second set of implementing Regulations to transpose EU Directive 2008/101/EC to include aviation in to the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

The second stage Regulations that are the subject of the consultation will complete the UK transposition of the Directive.

The consultation will run from 11 December 2009 until 5 March 2010.

21 October 2009:

The UK Director General of Civil Aviation at the Department for Transport (DfT) has written an open letter to the 891 aircraft operators regulated by the UK, highlighting the important deadlines that operators should be aware of, and explaining how to comply. A copy of the letter can be found on the Department for Transport: Environmental issues web page. 

17 September 2009:

The first stage Aviation EU ETS Regulations, which were laid before Parliament on 27 August, are now in force. Aircraft operators are required to apply to their UK regulator for an emissions plan no later than 12 November 2009. If a person becomes an aircraft operator after the Regulations come into force they must apply to their UK regulator for an emissions plan within 8 weeks of becoming an aircraft operator. Further information on how to apply for plans is available on the Environment Agency website.

1 September 2009:

The first Stage Aviation EU ETS Regulations are now available on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website. The accompanying Impact Assessment (IA) is available from the DECC consultation pages. The final draft Regulations were made available on this site on 3 August 2009 to give aircraft operators early sight of the obligations the Regulations would place upon them. This version of the Regulations is no longer available on this site but the final Regulations as laid do not contain material variations from the draft version.

Further information

We will update the website when information changes, but for more information we advise you check the European Commission’s website, which will also be updated with news from the Commission. 

Aviation Directive summary

         
         

                 
                Final agreement (October 2008)
 Timing
2012: inclusion of all flights arriving at and departing from EU airports
 Level of emissions cap
2012: 97 percent of average 2004-6 emissions
2013: 95 percent of 2004-6 emissions
Auctioning
2012: harmonised level of 15 percent auctioning
2013: auctioning level for 2013 onwards to be negotiated in the wider EU ETS review negotiations. No legally binding hypothecation clause
Free allocation criteria
Great circle distance plus 95km (fixed). Operators may choose to apply (i) actual weight (ii) standard weight or (iii) default passenger weight of 100kg
Special reserve
Creation of a reserve for new entrants and fast-growing airlines from within the cap. 3 percent of the total capped allowances for that phase. Allocated to new operators and those whose activity data shows an increase of more than 18 percent per annum
Open trading scheme. Access to Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) & Emission Reduction Units (ERUs)
Open trading scheme but with the removal of the clause that allows convertibility between Assigned Amounts (AAs) and EU Allowance Units (EUAs)
2012: 15 percent access to CERs and ERUs
2012+: to be confirmed as part of ETS review negotiations
Notable exemptions.
A full list is available on the European Commission website
Weight – certified 5.7t maximum take off mass threshold
Heads of State exemption restricted to non-EU
Exemption for Public Service Obligations where they are either on specific routes between outermost regions or where capacity offered does not exceed 30,000 seats per year
Activity threshold exemption for commercial air operators who operate at a frequency lower than 243 flights per period into, out of, or within the EU for three consecutive four-month periods, or with an emissions threshold of less than 10,000 TCO2 a year

The Environment Agency will draw upon its experience of managing the existing EU ETS and the CAA will help deliver an effective system for aviation.

Aviation publications and research

The DECC Publications and research page holds documents detailing past research.
 
You can find more information, including news, FAQs, links to guidance and templates, and help on submitting monitoring and benchmarking plans, on the Environment Agency EU ETS aviation website.
 
You can contact the DECC EU ETS Team at Aviation.EUETS@DECC.gsi.gov.uk.
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