Preparing for
Emissions Trading in Europe

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Frequently Asked Questions

These frequently asked questions are meant to help you understand what is needed to prepare for emissions trading in Europe.

What is an Emissions Trading Scheme?
- Emissions trading is a market-based scheme for environmental improvement that allows participants to buy and sell emissions allowances, i.e. rights to emit a fixed amount of emissions per year.
- Emissions trading allows established emission goals to be met in the most cost-effective way by letting the market determine the lowest-cost pollution abatement opportunities.
- At the end of each trading year, participants have to hand over (“surrender”) allowances corresponding to their actual emissions in that year.
- Participants can either sell unused allowances to other participants in the scheme or must buy the allowances needed to cover their extra emissions from other participants.
- Example: an airline joins the trading scheme in 2012 and is given allowances to emit 1 million tonnes of CO2 for that year.
- For a basic introduction to the concept of emissions trading, please refer to IATA’s brochure What you need to know about emissions trading (pdf)

Where can I find out more about the EU ETS?

For information on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, please refer to EU ETS

How does the EU ETS apply to aviation?
- A directive to include aviation into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was published in the European Union’s Official Journal on 13 January 2009. Key elements:

Which airlines are captured by the EU ETS?
- On 12 August 2009, the EC published an advanced copy (pdf) of the final list of aircraft operators and their administering member states captured by the scheme. The final list will be published in the official journal of the European Union on 22 August 2009.
- It has also published a description of the methodology used for generating the list
- Airlines are advised to double check their inclusion status directly with the competent authority in their administering Member State.
- The Commission will update the list every year to include new aircraft operators.
- Please see IATA member airlines captured by the EU (pdf) prepared on the basis of the preliminary list published by the EC.

My airline is included - What should I do now?
- Step 1: Contact the competent authority of your administering Member State to double-check your inclusion and to find out about any stakeholder meetings and /or consultations that they may be organising. See contacts details (pdf)
- Step 2: Start preparing your company’s monitoring plan (due for submission to the competent authority by 31 August 2009). See the Q&A on monitoring plans
- Overview of key dates in 2009:

What types of flights are included?
- All flights that arrive or depart from an aerodrome situated in the territory of a EU Member State are included. However, note that the following flights are exempted:

What are the trading periods?
- There will be two trading periods. The first trading period consists of the year 2012. The second trading period comprises the eight years to the end of the Kyoto period, i.e. from 2013 to 2020.

Which is my administering Member State?
- For EU-carriers the administering Member State is the EU Member State that granted the operating license to that aircraft operator.
- For non-EU carriers the administering Member State is the EU Member State with the “greatest estimated aviation emissions” from flights performed by that aircraft operator in the base year (2006) or the first year of operation if an aircraft operator started operating in the Community after 1 January 2006.
- On 12 August 2009, the EC published an advanced copy (pdf) of the final list of aircraft operators and their administering member states captured by the scheme. The final list will be published in the official journal of the European Union on 22 August 2009.
- Airlines are advised to double check their inclusion status directly with the competent authority in their administering Member State.
- The Commission will update the list every year to include new aircraft operators.

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Questions & Answers:

Monitoring plans (pdf)
Tonne-kilometre monitoring and reporting (pdf)
Emissions monitoring and reporting (pdf)