The Aviation Sector
On November 19, 2008, the Council and the European Parliament adopted Directive 2008/101 / EC (which amends Directive 2003/87 / EC) in order to include air transport activities in the EU gas emission allowance trading system greenhouse effect. The Directive was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 13 January 2009 and entered into force on 2 February 2009.
All operators carrying out one of the air transport activities listed in Annex I of the Directive are included in the EU emissions trading scheme and are required to perform each year:
- monitoring of emissions in compliance with Regulation No. 601/2012;
- transmission to the Competent Authority of the emission verification report by 31 March;
- the inclusion of emissions (relating to the previous monitoring year) in the Union Register by March 31st after opening the account;
- surrender of an equal amount of allowances against emissions produced by April 30th.
More information regarding the communication of emissions to the Competent Authority and the provisions on verification are available on the MATTM website.
For information about opening an account in the Union Registry, consult the procedure and tutorial related to opening an air operator account.
Stop the clock
Although the original intention of the European Parliament was to cover emissions of flights that take off or land at European Economic Area airports (EEA, EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein), in 2013 the scope was reduced to cover only intra-European flights until 2020, in order to allow a global agreement to be reached at ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). This temporary reduction in the scope of the regulation is known as "Stop the Clock".
“De minimis” exemption
According to the provisions of Annex I letter J of Directive 2008/101 / EC, a "de minimis" exemption is applicable if a commercial air transport operator has carried out:
- less than 243 flights per period for three consecutive four-month periods;
- flights with total annual emissions of less than 10,000 tons a year;
Furthermore, according to the provisions of Regulation 421/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council, non-commercial aicraft operators operating flights with total annual emissions of less than 1,000 tons a year are excluded from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020.
An aircraft operator that demonstrates, with reference to a specific monitoring year (x), the existence of one of the aforementioned requirements, is considered exempt and is not required to fulfill the ETS obligations in the year (x + 1).
Small emitters
According to the art. 54 of Regulation No. 601/2012, an aircraft operator which operates less than 243 flights during three consecutive four-month periods or whose flights in aggregate emit less than 25,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, is considered an “small emitter". These operators can use a simplified procedure to monitor its emissions available on the MATTM website.
CORSIA
The CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) is an international program approved by ICAO, which aims to stabilize international air transport emissions by 2020 through a compensation mechanism.
The CORSIA is part of a European regulation of emissions already regulated by the Emission Trading exchange system, in which many European and international air operators have been participating for some time.
Both the CORSIA and the ETS imply that the airlines control and communicate their emissions, returning a certain number of credits (in terms of allowances or compensation) depending on the increase in their emissions. Thanks to these similarities, it is possible for the two schemes to operate on the same platform avoiding a double administrative burden for the air operators involved.
The CORSIA will be implemented in different phases: In the first two three-year phases (from 2021 to 2026), countries will be able to decide voluntarily whether to participate or not in the system while in the last phase (from 2027 to 2035) participation will be mandatory unless exempted.
The RUN scheme will apply under the following conditions:
- the operator has an ICAO designator, or a code issued by the reference State;
- airplanes with an MTOM of more than 5,700 kg are present in the fleet;
- with such airplanes international flights are made / planned / planned (according to the ICAO definition, that is to say that they take off from one State and land in a different one);
- International flights result in annual CO2 emissions of more than 10,000 tons.
- Flights for humanitarian, medical or fire operations are not included in the calculation of the CORSIA and baseline emissions.
More information on the CORSIA is available at the following link.