The Environment Agency of Iceland would like to remind all aircraft operators who qualify as new entrants and want to apply for allowances to send in their TKM monitoring plan before 31 August 2013. 

According to Art. 19(1) of the Icelandic Climate Change Act No 70/2012, which implements Directive 2003/87/EC in Iceland, new aircraft operators in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) can apply for free allowance from the ETS. In the period 2013-2020, the total quantity of allowances to be allocated for the aviation sector is 95% of the EEA-wide historical aviation emissions, and from that 82% of the allowances are granted for free to aircraft operators, 15% are assigned by auctioning and 3% remain in a special reserve for later distribution to fast growing airlines and new entrants into the market. 

According to Art. 19 (2) new entrants are:

• Aircraft operators, who start flight operations mentioned in Annex II after monitoring year during current period, see Art. 18 (3) which was the year 2010, or
• Aircraft operators who increase the number of tonne- kilometres in their activity by an average of more than 18% per year between 2010 and 2014. 

An aircraft operator is not, however, considered a new participant if aviation activity is to be wholly or partially a continuation of an activity previously carried out by another aircraft operator. 

The application must be made by 30 June 2015 and be supported by verified tonne – kilometre activity data and documentary proof that the operator meets either of the two eligibility criteria. According to the Icelandic Climate Change Act, (Art. 19(7)) the application should be a report on the number of tonne - kilometres in its second calendar year of the current trading period which is the year 2014. The report shall be based on the monitoring plan of tonne - kilometres and in accordance with the provisions of Chapter VII in the Icelandic Climate Change law. 

That said, if aircraft operators wish to apply for free allocation of emission allowances, the deadline for submission of the tonne – kilometre monitoring plan is 31 August 2013. 

 For further information, please contact the Environment Agency via: ets-aviation@ust.is