From January 1st 2012 aviation activities in the European Economic Area (EEA) will be included in the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS). From that date, the ETS will cover flights which depart from or arrive in an aerodrome situated in the EEA, i.e. in any of the 27 EU Member States and in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Aircraft operators falling under the scope of the ETS will then have to acquire emission allowances equivalent to their annual CO2 emissions.

According to Act no. 65/2007 on the emission of greenhouse gases, with later amendments, The Environment Agency of Iceland (EAI) allocates allowances free of charge to aircraft operators which are covered by the system and administered by Iceland. The allocation is based on benchmarks set out in a regulation by the Minister for the Environment. The regulation is in accordance with the decision of the EEA Joint Committee on benchmarks for aviation activities in the European Economic Area.

On December 9th the Minister for the Environment adopted Regulation no. 1131/2011 on free allocation of emission allowances to aircraft operators, which implements EEA Joint Committee Decision from October 21st 2011. The regulation lays down one benchmark for the trading period in 2012 and another for the trading period 2013-2020. In 2012 aircraft operators will receive 0.6797 allowances per 1,000 tonne-kilometres, while in 2013 to 2020 aircraft operators will receive 0.6422 allowances per 1,000 tonne-kilometres each year.

Nine aircraft operators, two of which are Icelandic, applied for free allowances to the EAI. By applying the benchmark values to the 2010 verified activity data (tonne-kilometre data) submitted by the operators, the EAI has calculated the allocation of allowances that the aircraft operators will receive in each year in the two trading periods, 2012 and 2013-2020.

 

Allocations are in whole tonnes of CO2

By February 28 2012 and by February 28 of each subsequent year, EAI will issue to each aircraft operator the number of allowances allocated to that aircraft operator for that year.

For further information, please visit the EAI website, , and the website of the EU Commission.