Application of the European Union Emissions Trading Directive : analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2018

This report analyses and evaluates the information reported by European Union Member States (MS) on their implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System Directive (EU ETS Directive). It takes into consideration information reported for 2017 (based on national responses submitted in 2018) and for previous years (2016, 2015, 2014, 2013) under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive. The data provided show that the number of installation and aircraft operators decreased once again in 2017. The total emissions of stationary installations remained more or less constant whereas the emissions of aircraft operators increased. Implementation of the EU ETS Directive has reached a high level due to the constant improvements of the last few years. This is reflected especially in the correct use of default and literature values, the completeness of sampling plans, the application of the highest tier approach by installations, the decreasing number of installations employing the fall-back approach and the low number of verified annual emission reports (AER) rejected by Competent Authorities. Reporting by the MS maintained the very high percentage seen in 2016 and reached 99.6% near complete submissions. Improvements could still be achieved in the submission of data concerning improvement reports, different interpretations of certain items in the questionnaire such as reporting of fuel consumption data (e.g. consumption data for refinery gas), assessment of processes when they are time consuming (e.g. conservative estimates and penalties) and reporting of activities in accordance with Codes from the Common Reporting Format (CRF).