Application of the European Union Emission Trading Directive : analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2017 : final report

This report analyses and evaluates the information reported by European Union Member States on their implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System Directive (EU ETS Directive, EU, 2003). It takes into consideration information reported for 2016 and previous years (2015, 2014, 2013) under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive. The data provided show that the number of installation and aircraft operators decreased in 2016. The total emissions of stationary installations also decreased but the emissions of aircraft operators increased. Implementation of the EU ETS Directive seems to improve constantly. This concerns especially the correct use of default and literature values, the completeness of sampling plans, the use of higher tier methods by installations, the decreasing number of installations employing the fall-back approach and the low number of verified emission reports rejected. Reporting by the Member States has improved as well based on the more complete and higher quality information reported in 2017 compared with previous years. Improvements can be still achieved in the submission of data concerning improvement reports, and different interpretations of certain items in the questionnaire such as reporting of fuel consumption data and reporting of activities in accordance with Codes from the Common Reporting Format (CRF).