The European Commission has published a complete Q&A on the 'stop the clock' proposal
11/12/2012
The European Commission (EC) published today a complete set of Frequently Asked Questions about its proposal to defer EU ETS international aviation compliance by one year.» Go to European Commission EU ETS web site
The document confirms the information we provided to you recently in our own FAQ.
In short, the EC confirms that 'extra-European flights' (flights between EEA States and third countries, except Switzerland and Croatia) are now outside the scope of EU ETS.
The condition is that aircraft operators must return the allocated free allowances that correspond to the reported 2010 tonne-kilometre data in relation to extra-European flights. The formula to calculate the number of free allowances to return will be as follows:
Allowances to return = 2010 TK for extra-European flights * Benchmark 2012 = 2010 TK for extra-European flights * 0.0006797
This is a business decision as it might be financially beneficial for some operators to continue to report extra-European flights, especially considering the possibility to surrender up to 15% of required allowances using cheap CERs and ERUs.
Section 4 of the FAQ explains in details how the free allowances will have to be returned.
Nevertheless, while proper monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions is obligatory for intra-European flights, aircraft operators are welcome to also report emissions for extra-European flights.
Most importantly, the EC confirms that pending completion of the legislative process, aircraft operators which have either not received, or have returned for cancellation the relevant share of their free allowances for 2012, should not expect the EC to require enforcement activities to be taken against them by Member States in respect of reporting emissions or surrendering allowances for extra-European flights.
In conclusion, aircraft operators are advised to take the decision whether to report all Annex 1 flights or intra-European flights only, then start preparing their 2012 annual emissions report as soon as the last 2012 flight has been operated, and finally get ready for verification.
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