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Parts of the aviation sector will be covered by the EU trading scheme with effect from 2012. |
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Emissions trading for the aviation sector applies to flights which take off from or land at an aerodrome in the EU regardless of destination or country of departure. Due to an expansion of the Emissions Trading Scheme to the EEA Member states (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), flights to, from and within EEA Member States are also included (from January 2010). As a consequence of the upcoming Croatian membership in the EU, the trading scheme will consequently be expanded to include domestic flights within Croatia, as well as those between Croatia and non-EEA countries.
Exemptions
Aircraft with a take-off mass of less than 5,700 kg are exempt. The following are also exempt:
- Flights related to search and rescue, military flights, customs and police flights, training flights.
- Commercial air transport operators with emissions lower than 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year or operating fewer than 243 flights per period for three consecutive four-month periods.
A complete list of exemptions can be found in the Directive and in Section 17a of the Emissions Trading Ordinance (2004:1205).
Note that the expansion to the EEA Member states may mean that some aircraft operators who only operate services in the EEA Member States or commercial aircraft operators who have previously been exempt because they have not reached the thresholds for emissions or number of flights are to be included.
Administering Member State
An administering Member State has to be appointed for each aircraft operator covered by the scheme. The administering Member State is the country that will, for example, handle monitoring and reporting plans, allocation and reporting from each aircraft operator. In the vast majority of cases it is the Member State that has issued the operating licence (OL). For operators without an operating licence, the Commission has to appoint an administering Member State by 1 February each year. This will be the Member State to or which the aircraft operator concerned operated most flights in 2006 or later.
The EU Commission has established a list of the administering Member States for those aircraft operators that do not have an operating licence:
Note that it is not the list in itself that determines whether or not aviation activity is covered by the Emissions Trading Act. All flights and aircraft operators to, from or within the EU are covered, provided that they are not exempt according to Section 17a of the Emissions Trading Ordinance. The list only indicates which Member State is responsible for each aircraft operator.
The EU Commission has decided on the more detailed interpretation of aviation activities.
The EU Commission has produced information on the legal status of the list:
Background
The decision to incorporate aviation into emissions trading was taken by the Environment Council on 20 December 2007. The rules applicable to the inclusion of aviation in the trading scheme were adopted through Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council (2008/101/EC) of 19 November 2008, known as the Aviation Emissions Directive.
In Sweden the Ministry of the Environment has implemented the regulatory changes required in legislation to enable aviation to be incorporated into the trading scheme. The rules are specified in the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations NFS 2009:6.
In the EU, the European Commission is responsible for guidelines relating to monitoring and reporting. Guidelines for aviation activity have been introduced into the Monitoring and Reporting Guidelines (MRG) applicable to the present-day trading scheme, i.e. to fixed installations. The Commission’s guidelines were introduced into the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s current regulations on emission allowances for carbon dioxide during 2009. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency regulations came into force on 1 September 2009.