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Allocation of aviation allowances in an EEA-wide Emissions Trading System
The total quantity of allowances to be allocated to aircraft operators is determined based on the "historical" CO2 emissions from the aviation sector (average of the annual emissions from years 2004, 2005 and 2006). The total quantity of allowances to be allocated in 2012 will be equal to 97% of the EEA-wide estimated historical aviation emissions. In the period 2013-2020 this percentage will be reduced to 95% of the EEA-wide estimated historical aviation emissions.
Benchmarks for the allocation of free allowances
On 26 September 2011 the Commission adopted a decision on the EEA-wide benchmark values which will be used to allocate greenhouse gas emission allowances to aircraft operators free of charge. The latter will also be used by Norway and Iceland to calculate allowances for their aircraft operators, as established by the EEA Joint Committee decision of 21 October 2011. Subsequently, free aviation allowances will be distributed to more than 900 aircraft operators, who applied for free allocation by reporting their tonne-km data for 2010.
One benchmark has been calculated for the trading period in 2012 and another for the trading period starting in January 2013. In 2013 to 2020 an airline will receive 0.6422 allowances per 1,000 tonne-kilometres, while in 2012 it will receive 0.6797 allowances.
The benchmark for each period was calculated by dividing the total annual amount of free allowances applicable to the 2012 and 2013-2020 trading periods by the sum of tonne-kilometre data included in applications by aircraft operators submitted to the Commission. The submissions by aircraft operators are based on independently verified tonne-kilometre activity data recorded throughout the 2010 calendar year.
The allocation of free allowances to each aircraft operator is carried out by Member States, who multiply the benchmark by the 2010 tonne-kilometre data of each aircraft operator. Member States have started determining individual allocations to aircraft operators. The deadline is 26 December 2011.
The information on the allocations by Member States is available under the "Links" tab, and will be updated to include information from the remaining Member States.
Total quantity of allowances allocated to aviation sector
The total quantity of allowances to be allocated for the aviation sector (cap) in 2012 will be equal to 97% of the EEA-wide historical aviation emissions. In the period 2013-2020 this percentage will be reduced to 95%.
The Directive 2008/101/EC foresees that in 2012, 85% of the allowances will be given for free to aircraft operators and 15% of the allowances will be allocated by auctioning. In the trading period 2013-2020, 82% of the allowances will be granted for free to aircraft operators, 15% of the CO2 allowances will be assigned by auctioning and the remaining 3% will remain in a special reserve for later distribution to fast growing airlines and new entrants into the market.
On 30 June 2011 the Commission adopted a decision on the quantity of allowances to be allocated to aircraft operators free of charge, to be auctioned and the number of allowances in the special reserve. The decision covers two trading periods: 2012 and 2013-2020.
This Commission decision only covers 27 Member States. It has thus been complemented by an EEA Joint Committee Decision 93/2011 of 20 July 2011 
[20 KB]) to cover all 30 EEA States.
Historical aviation emissions
The EU-wide historical aviation emissions were established by the European Commission in its decision of 7 March 2011. In addition, the historical emissions figure related to the extension of the aviation part of the EU ETS to two EEA-EFTA countries (Iceland and Norway) has been calculated. It has been added to the figure for EU-27 in order to set the EEA-wide historical aviation emissions.
The decision [16 KB]on the EEA-wide historical aviation emissions adopted on 1 July 2011 serves as the basis to calculate the EEA-wide cap for aviation, which is now set at 221 420 279 tonnes of CO2. This figure represents the average of the annual emissions for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 of all activities covered by the scope of the legislation.
The calculation of historical aviation emissions is based on data from Eurocontrol (the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation) and actual fuel consumption information provided by aircraft operators. Additional calculations were carried out to account for fuel consumption associated with the use of the auxiliary power units (APUs) on aircraft at airports.
All legislative documents as well as the methodology describing the calculation of historical aviation emissions are available under the "Documentation" tab on top of this page.