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​Swiss ETS to be linked with EU ETS?

20/06/2012



The Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) and the EU are currently conducting negotiations on possible linking of their local ETS to the EU ETS. If an agreement is reached the linking will take place in 2014.

Currently, the Swiss ETS constitutes a voluntary alternative to a domestic fuel tax. It covers energy related CO2 emissions by around 400 companies since 1 January 2008. Switzerland has expressed an interest in linking its stationary ETS with the EU ETS.

However, the EU will only accept that if Switzerland also includes aviation. It is worth mentioning that there are a number of unresolved institutional questions which affect all bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU, including sensitive areas such as migration, taxation and energy issues.

Below the relevant documents pertaining to this issue are available for download. The FOCA issued an Ordinance which requires aircraft operators with flights departing from or arriving at airports in Switzerland to submit their verified TK report for year 2013 by 31 March 2014. Aircraft operators are also expected to submit their monitoring plan to the FOCA for approval no later than 30 September 2012.

The acquisition of TK data will start on January 2013 provided that the negotiations with the EU on the ETS can be concluded. If not, the Federal Council will postpone the collection of TK data.

A consultation on the Ordinance is underway and will terminate on 30 June 2012.

September 2012 update: The Swiss government has made a U-turn on its decision introduce an aviation ETS by January 2013.  The Swiss scheme was largely based on the EU ETS and would at some point have been linked to the European system. The Swiss have decided to 'wait and see' how the EU ETS performs and what progress is made by ICAO on a global aviation emissions reduction scheme within the next 12 months.

» Consultation on the Ordinance
» Progess of EU negotiations
» Linking the Emission Trading Systems Swiss-EU
» Swiss Civil Aviation 2010 report
» Related GreenAir Online article
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