The system of registries

The Union registry is an online database that holds accounts for stationary installations (transferred from the national registries used before 2012) and for aircraft operators (included in the EU ETS since January 2012).

The registry records:

National implementation measures (a list of installations covered by the ETS Directive in each EU country and any free allocation to each of those installations in the period 2013-2020);
Accounts of companies or individuals holding such allowances;
Transfers of allowances ("transactions") performed by account holders;
Annual verified CO₂ emissions from installations and aircraft operators;
Annual reconciliation of allowances and verified emissions, where each company must have surrendered enough allowances to cover all its verified emissions.

Following a revision of the ETS Directive in 2009, EU ETS operations were in 2012 centralised in a single EU registry, the Consolidated System of European Registries (CSEUR) operated by the European Commission. The management of the user accounts still remained however with the Member States.

The Union registry covers all countries participating in the EU ETS namely all EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

From the viewpoint of the International Transaction Log (ITL) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the CSEUR consists of the Kyoto registries of the EU Member States and the one of the European Union (the Union Registry - UR). However, it is important to note that, although CSEUR offers the possibility to work with Kyoto and ETS accounts with a single access, these types of accounts are not managed in the same way. In fact, Kyoto national registers have strictly related to the specifications of the UNFCCC system.

The consolidated system of european registries (CSEUR)

The Consolidated System of European Registries, in short CSEUR, groups all national registries of the EU Member States as well as the national registries of Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland in a single central software system managed by the European Commission. The EU part of the Registry (IT-EU) ensures that stationary installations and aircraft operators falling under EU ETS Directive fulfill their obligations through the annual compliance cycle. The Kyoto part of the Registry (IT-KP) ensures that the Parties have achieved their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. This part holds: Kyoto national accounts (IT-100 -...) and the person holding accounts (IT-121- ...) that already existed before centralization to CSEUR. These accounts cannot hold ETS (general and aviation) allowances in their balance.

International credits (Kyoto), namely CERs or ERUs, can be deposited on both the EU and the Kyoto part of CSEUR.

The technical management (software and hosting) of the CSEUR is being done by the European Commission; the user and account management in the national parts of the CSEUR is done by the respective Member States. So, the Member States can open the accounts, verify the requested documentation and can have direct contact with the end users.

In Italy, in accordance with Legislative Decree 30/2013 (art. 28,1), ISPRA has been designated registry administrator of the Italian national registry.

Supervision in the EU-ETS: EUTL

Compliance with the rules of the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is verified by the European Transaction Log (EUTL). The EUTL is responsible for the supervision of all EU ETS-related transactions and processes. EU ETS - specific processes, such as transactions with European allowances, are only verified by the EUTL. In case of transactions with international credits, the first check is done by the ITL (see the next paragraph). However, an additional verification is carried out by the EUTL once the ITL forwarded the transaction.

There are publicly available information, such as the allocation, the compliance by operators and aircraft operators, as well as their international credit entitlement and an overview of historic transactions (at least 3 years old) published on EUTL webiste . Taking into account the italian section of the Union Registry please refer to the Public Report section.

Supervision in the internation ETS: ITL (plus EUTL)

The CSEUR is part of an international Emissions Trading System (ETS). It is connected with other KP registries via the International Transaction Log (ITL). The ITL is operated by the UNFCCC based on the Data Exchange Standards (DES) for Registry Systems under the Kyoto Protocol. Any transaction of international credit is checked by the ITL to ensure its compliance with the DES. In case of transactions from or towards a European registry, such as the Italian section of the Union Registry, the ITL will forward the transaction request to the EUTL. So, the EUTL check the transaction validity under the EU ETS rules.