EMISSION TRADING

WHAT IS THAT

The Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is a system for trading greenhouse gas emission quotas for the countries of the European Union and represents a central instrument of the Union's climate policy.

This system allows one industrialized country to sell to another the excess rights deriving from a reduction of its emissions beyond the threshold it has committed to under the Kyoto protocol.

CSQA is an accredited body for validation checks of ETS communications

THE KYOTO PROTOCOL

The Kyoto Protocol , which entered into force on February 16, 2005, provides for measures to combat climate change, establishing the legal and non-legal bases for the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) in industrialized countries .

With the entry into force of the Protocol, the commitments made by individual states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have become binding and economic sanctions are therefore envisaged for those states that do not comply with the rules.

THE ODDS EXCHANGE SYSTEM

On 13 October 2003 the European Commission published the European Directive on the emissions market, better known as the Emission Trading System (EU ETS).

SUMMARY OF THE DIRECTIVE

Directive 2003/87/EC establishes that each Member State draws up a national plan which determines the total quotas of emissions it intends to assign in specific periods and the modalities for this assignment. On 8 April 2018, the new EU ETS Directive 2018/410 came into force, amending the previous one to speed up the withdrawal of the emission quotas available on the European ETS carbon market.

The directive provides for a twofold obligation for the plants regulated by it:

1. the need to operate to possess a permit for the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
2. the obligation to return at the end of the year a number of allowances (or rights) equal to the greenhouse gas emissions released during the year

The communications relating to greenhouse gas emissions that EU ETS plant operators send to the competent National Authority must be validated by an accredited body, such as CSQA .