European Union emissions trading system support facility

Our support facility assists stakeholders implementing the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for aviation fairly, equitably and efficiently, whilst reducing the overall cost of implementing and complying with the legislation in force.

We operate the facility to support the competent authorities in the European Economic Area (EEA) Member States, the European Commission (the regulator) and aircraft operators (the regulated entities) in discharging their obligations under the EU ETS.

Competent authorities

We provide the CAs with information and data relevant to the EU ETS to support them in complying with their regulatory obligations under the EU ETS. The support facility is available online to EEA States and via our helpdesk.

Aircraft operators

We produce a draft Annual Emissions Report (AER) and associated fight data information (Flight Data File).

The draft AER and flight data is sent to aircraft operators by email. This information may interest:

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

The Flight Data File is sent together with the draft AER. It includes:

• all flights attributed to the aircraft operator and operating in the ETS area (both included and exempted flights);
• details 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 exemption (as determined by EUROCONTROL) upon which the aircraft operator’s draft annual emissions report is built.

Small emitters tool

The Small emitters tool (SET) is a simplified fuel and CO₂ estimator, allowing AOs to estimate their fuel burn on a flight-by-flight basis. It has been developed for use in the EU ETS and adopted by the European Commission. The tool, updated annually, meets the requirements of Commission Regulation (EU) N° 601/2012 in respect of the approach based on individual flights, actual route length and statistically sound fuel consumption relationships. As a result, relevant aircraft operators can use the tool to fulfil their EU ETS monitoring and reporting obligations in a simplified manner.

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

• the information which the EC uses for the annual publication of its list associating aircraft operators with EU ETS-administering states;
• an estimate of the historical aviation emissions for the period 2004-2006, 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.

The EU ETS SF helps with monitoring and reporting and makes processes go smoothly. It helps both States and users to save money by reducing the cost of compliance with the legislation.

If you have to report less than 3,000 tonnes of CO₂ or you have emitted less than 25,000 tonnes of CO₂, benefit from a “simplified procedure” which exempts you from further verification. Obtain the report from the EUROCONTROL support facility (ETS/SF), fill in your administrative information and send it to the competent authority without further verification. The ETS SF now includes all the necessary functions for initiating a submission without verification, saving time and money.

If you have performed less than 243 flights per period for three consecutive four-month periods (but emitted > 25,000 tonnes of CO₂), you are considered a “small emitter” and can use the ETS/SF to obtain a draft of your annual emissions, saving time in monitoring. Validation is still required by the verifier before submission to the competent authority. If you are an aircraft operator (other than a small emitter), you can obtain flight and emissions information to assist you in performing checks against your own data. Avoid potential issues by identifying missing flights, spotting differences in the application of exemptions, or even filling data gaps.

We charge an annual fee of 400 EUR for all aircraft operators that 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 fee represents a financial benefit for EUROCONTROL.

We perform the maintenance and processing of all flight data information in an ETS Support Facility Data Base as part of our support for the EU ETS Competent Authorities. This activity is therefore not included in the costs associated with the ETS support function for Aircraft Operators and related third party users.

Additional fees may apply to additional services within the tool.