Information on what operators must do to comply with Phase III of the EU ETS.
The EU Emissions Trading System has been revised through the adoption of Directive 2009/29/EC.
The revised Directive takes effect from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020. It introduces significant changes to the scope of the EU ETS, as well as changes to operator entitlement to free allowances and how they will be issued.
This page outlines the most significant changes to the Directive, the potential impact on operators and some of the most immediate implementation tasks.
Read the section below on the 'Scope of Phase III' so you understand which installations are now covered by EU ETS.
1) If you think you may be caught by Phase III and do not currently hold a Greenhouse Gas Permit, please email our dedicated Phase III Helpdesk:
2) Please send us:
- Operator name
- Site name
- Site address (including postcode)
- A contact email address
3) Please provide this information as soon as possible, so we can include you in forthcoming data collection exercises.
- New sector activities and gases. This includes releases of:
- carbon dioxide from the production of bulk organic chemicals, non-ferrous metals and gypsum related activities;
- releases of perfluorocarbons and carbon dioxide from the primary aluminium sector and;
- releases of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide from the production of nitric, adipic, glyoxal and glyoxylic acid.
- Addition of a broad definition of combustion, now capturing all combustion of fuel.
- The exclusion of installations using 97 per cent or more biomass (fossil fuels may be used for start-up and shut-down).
- Subject to Government consultation and approval by the European Commission, the exclusion from Phase III of:
- small emitters (installations where emissions of CO2 are less than 25,000 tonnes per year and they have a rated thermal input of below 35MW)
- hospitals
- Operators will still be required to complete the forthcoming data requests even if they consider that they meet the small emitter criteria.
- Carbon leakage sectors identified and provided with 100% free allocations.
- No free allocations for the generation of electricity.
Further information on the activities covered can be found on pages 43-45 of the document Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 - establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC, which you can access at the link below:
The initial data trawl was undertaken in the first quarter of 2010 to gather baseline information from operators that we were aware of that would be included in Phase III of the EU ETS.
Following the publication of the allocation rules (PDF, 234KB) that were approved by EU Member States in January 2011. We are now in a position to collect additional data required to determine the levels of free allocation for installations.
This additional data includes production data for some additional products that have been given a product benchmark, and 2009 to 2010 data (as opposed to 2005 to 2008) where activity levels in 2009 and 2010 are higher. There is also some additional data which operators must submit as it is required by the allocation rules.
This data includes the provision of installed capacity data for product benchmarks, emissions data and a methodology report for detailing how the data you supply has been collected.
A request for additional data has been sent to operators who believe they will be included in this data collection. The deadline for the submission of the completed forms is the 13 June 2011.
If you think you operate an installation brought into the EU ETS in Phase III, and have not been included in the electronic mailing list from the Environment Agency, then please contact us immediately. The forms and guidance are available from our website for you to download.
The verified data is required from all installations and is mandatory. This includes installations currently in the EU ETS, and those that may be opted out under the small emitters provision. This data will be used to determine the levels of free allocation for installations. Provisions are also made for those that have had a significant change in the capacity of their installation, and installations that have been in operation for less than two years during the baseline period.
Further information on the transposition of the revised Directive into UK law can be found on the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC ) website:
We have produced additional guidance for the collection of the data and have updated the ETS300 to incorporate the additional requirements. We have also updated the verification guidance and verification opinion template. These documents can be found on our forms and guidance page:
Further guidance
A frequently asked questions (FAQ) document is now available on our forms and guidance page and will be regularly updated. The FAQ addresses the issues raised by operators and will be updated to include questions relating to verification.
In addition, the European Commission has produced a significant amount of guidance to assist with the completion of the data requests and these documents can be found on the European Comission website:
