European Union Emissions Trading System support

We have set up a Support Facility (ETS SF) to help our stakeholders implement the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for aviation. The ETS SF helps with monitoring and reporting and makes processes go smoothly. States and users save money by reducing the cost of compliance with the legislation. Beneficiaries include various parties as detailed below.

The EUROCONTROL ETS SF is intended for stakeholders which have compliance obligations under the EU ETS. Any potential users from other fields of work will need prior authorisation from us to access and use the tool, along with the financial conditions associated with this.

Competent authorities

We provide the competent authorities (CAs) with information and data relevant to the EU ETS to help them comply with their regulatory obligations under the EU ETS. The EU ETS SF is available to EU-ETS-relevant States (EEA States and Switzerland) via a web application and via our dedicated helpdesk.

European Commission

Using our expertise, modelling and database capabilities, we provide the European Commission (EC) with:

• the information which the EC uses for the annual publication of its ETS list, associating aircraft operators with European administering States;
• an estimate of historical aviation emissions, which the EC will take into account when publishing the aviation sector’s emissions cap within the EU ETS;
• assessments of the possible impact of changes to the legislation.

Aircraft operators

We produce a draft Annual Emissions Report (AER) and associated flight data information (also called the flight data file) which we make available to aircraft operators (AOs) by email. This information could be of benefit to:

• small and larger AOs in preparing their annual report under the EU ETS;
• those AOs who can complete and submit it to their competent authorities without third party verification, reducing compliance costs;
• verifiers mandated to verify an AO’s annual emissions or tonne-kilometre report;
• service management companies acting on behalf of AOs.

The flight data file includes:

• for EU ETS, all flights attributed to the AO and operating in the ETS area (included and exempted flights);
• for CORSIA, traffic information available to EUROCONTROL with flights to/from the ECAC area only;
• information allowing the identification of the flight and the reasons for its inclusion;
• estimated fuel consumption based on real distance flown, estimated CO2 emissions, possible ETS/CORSIA exemption (as determined by EUROCONTROL) on which the AO's draft annual emissions report is based.

The EU ETS has been supplemented by the Commission delegated regulation as regards ICAO’s CORSIA measures adopted by ICAO¹.

As from 1 January 2019, all carriers, falling under ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA)², are required to report to their administrative State the CO2 emissions from their international civil flights. This must be done on an annual basis.

In order to address the new CORSIA EU ETS requirements and to support the monitoring and reporting process, you will now receive an amended draft EU ETS AER, including the CORSIA relevant data and the newly added CORSIA emissions sheet.

1 For more information about the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1603 of 18 July 2019 (see 'related links' below).
2 For more information about CORSIA, visit the ICAO Environment-dedicated webpages (see 'related links' below).

Aircraft operators established in the European Economic Area (EEA)³

• The new version of the EU ETS draft AER, populated with the relevant EU ETS data (to be used for ETS purposes only);
•  A “CORSIA emissions” sheet, including traffic information available to EUROCONTROL with flights to/from the ECAC area only;
• The full flight data file.

All other aircraft operators

• The new version of the EU ETS draft AER, populated with the relevant EU ETS data (to be used for ETS purposes only, the “CORSIA Emissions” sheet remaining empty);
• The “ICAO CORSIA Emissions” template, including traffic information available to EUROCONTROL with flights to/from the ECAC area only;
• The full flight data file.

3 Pursuant to Commission Regulation (EU) No 601/2012 (see 'related links' for more information)

• AOs who have to report less than 3,000 tonnes of CO2 or have emitted less than 25,000 tonnes of CO₂ benefit from a “simplified procedure” which exempts them from further verification. To obtain the report from the EUROCONTROL ETS SF, AOs should provide their administrative information and send it to the CA without further verification. The ETS SF now includes all the necessary functions for initiating a submission without verification.
• AOs who have performed fewer than 243 flights per period for three consecutive four-month periods (but have emitted more than 25,000 tonnes of CO₂) are considered “small emitters” and can use the EUROCONTROL ETS SF to obtain a draft of their annual emissions, saving time in monitoring. Validation is still required by the verifier before submission to the CA.
• AOs other than small emitters can obtain flight and emissions information to assist them in performing checks against their own data. They can avoid potential problems by identifying missing flights, spotting differences in the application of exemptions, or even filling data gaps.

We charge an annual fee of EUR 400 to all AOs who are interested in using our tool. This fee is invested back into developing solutions to manage requests and cover costs related to improvements, security and confidentiality. It also contributes to our support staff costs. None of the fees represents a financial benefit for EUROCONTROL.

The maintenance and processing of all flight data information in the EUROCONTROL ETS SF is part of our support for the EU ETS for competent authorities who ensure the financial coverage of all the related costs under EUROCONTROL’s user pays principle.

Additional fees may apply to additional services within the tool.

As of 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom has implemented a UK ETS in place of the EU ETS.

Modifications to the EU and Swiss ETS AERs and details on the requirements for reporting to UK for the UK ETS are expected to be made available by the relevant authorities for the reporting of 2021.

In the meantime, to ensure availability of relevant information, the reports delivered will continue to be based on the practice used for the reporting of 2020 traffic.

The EU-Swiss emissions trading systems linking agreement has entered into force and applies to flights as of 1 January 2020. We’ll make available data for Swiss domestic traffic and traffic between a State member of the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland will be available as soon as the European Commission publishes an EU ETS Annual Emissions Report template catering for the provisions of the agreement.