Navigation path
Page navigation
- Climate change in brief
- Climate and energy package
- Roadmap 2050
- European Climate Change Programme
- Greenhouse gas Monitoring & Reporting
- Emissions Trading System
- Effort Sharing Decision
- Low Carbon Technologies
- Transport
- Ozone Layer Protection
- Fluorinated Gases
- Forests and Agriculture
- Adaptation to climate change
- Climate finance
- Working with International Partners
Additional tools
Operational since January 2005, the registries ensure the accurate accounting of all allowances issued under the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). They keep track of the ownership of allowances held in electronic accounts in the same way as a bank has a record of all its customers and their money.
Gradually replacing the national registries by the Union registry
The revised ETS Directive that was adopted in 2009 provides for the centralisation of the EU ETS operations into a single European Union registry, operated by the Commission. The latter will replace all EU ETS registries currently hosted in the Member States.
The Union registry will be operational in two steps. As of 30 January 2012, it has been partially activated for aircraft operators as a first step. However, its full activation, including the transfer of existing accounts for stationary installations from national registries, will not take place before June 2012.
To participate in the EU Emissions Trading System, a company or a physical person has to open an account in one of the registries, either by applying online at the Union registry for aircraft operators or at the national registry of the relevant Member State for other companies or persons.
Opening aircraft operators' accounts in the Union Registry
From 30 January onwards, aircraft operators have to open accounts in the Union registry. Aircraft operators with an open account will be able to receive free allocation, as determined by their administering Member State, on the basis of the rules set out in the EU ETS Directive.
The requests for the opening of accounts and all supporting documentation will be verified by the relevant national administrator.
CITL becomes EUTL
The European Union Transaction Log (EUTL) will automatically check, record, and authorise all transactions that take place between accounts in the EU ETS registries. This verification will ensure that any transfer of allowances from one account to another is consistent with the ETS rules.
The EUTL will replace the Community Independent Transaction Log (CITL) which plays the same role today.
National registries still operational
Prior to the full activation of the Union registry, existing national registries remain operational, in particular for the allocation of allowances and the completion of compliance activities for stationary installations.
These registries exist for all the EU Member States plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. They are online databases that record:
- National plans indicating the allowances assigned to each Member State
- Accounts (held by a company or a physical person) to which those allowances have been allocated
- Transfers of allowances ("transactions") performed by the account holders
- Annual verified CO2 emissions from installations
- Annual reconciliation of allowances and verified emissions, where each company must have surrendered enough allowances to cover all its emissions
The national registries also provide access to a lot of information, including a number of reports on the participants and the performance of the trading scheme.