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Monitoring, Reporting and Verification for Aviation

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Guidelines and templates for monitoring and reporting

The monitoring and reporting guidelines (MRG) were adopted by the Commission on 16 April 2009. According to these guidelines, the Commission can establish an electronic standard protocol for reporting of emissions and tonne-kilometres from industrial installations and aircraft operators.

All references to Member States on the templates developed by the Commission should be interpreted as including all 30 EEA States (the current 27 EU Member States, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

The Commission is now working on the update of the monitoring and reporting templates to include Croatia due to the country's planned accession to the EU on 1 July 2013.

Example plans and charts

Example monitoring plans for annual emissions and tonne-kilometre monitoring and examples of the most relevant data flow charts have also been developed by the German Emissions Trading Authority with input from a number of other Member State competent authorities to provide a better understanding of the systems required.  

These example plans and charts give an indication of expected response to each section of the reporting templates and will thus be of most relevance to large aircraft operators. They are however provided for illustration purposes only and are not legally binding nor do they provide a mandatory interpretation of the legislation. Please note that in some cases the full text is only visible when clicking on the individual cell of the spreadsheet.

Additional guidance for monitoring and reporting

A guidance document has also been prepared by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to help aircraft operators compile their monitoring plans for participation in the EU ETS. It aims to provide some practical interpretation of the legal requirements for monitoring, reporting and verification. This document is however not legally binding nor does it provide a mandatory interpretation of the legislation. It is important to consider the requirements of national legislation implementing the EU ETS Directive.

Moreover, the Aviation Implementation Task Force was set up in December 2008 on the initiative of the Dutch Emissions Authority. This task force, comprising experts from Member States and the European Commission, identified the most pressing issues that competent authorities are faced with when preparing for the implementation of the Directive to include aviation in the EU ETS and the associated Monitoring and Reporting Guidelines The task force has also suggested a common and harmonized understanding of the requirements of the legislation.

Supporting documents developed by the task force are thus not legally binding nor do they impose a mandatory interpretation of the EU ETS Directive. They are merely practical guidance aimed at assisting competent authorities and aircraft operators in the interpretation and implementation of the EU ETS Directive.

Small emitters' tool

According to Annex XIV of the Guidelines on monitoring, reporting and verification, small emitters should be able to use a less burdensome approach to determine their fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

This simplified approach to monitoring is based on fuel consumption estimation tools, which generally utilise statistical information that relates fuel consumption to the distance flown. These tools are first approved by the Commission before they can be used by small emitters. Hence, on 9 July 2010 the Commission adopted a Regulation on the approval of a simplified tool developed by Eurocontrol to estimate the fuel consumption of certain small emitting aircraft operators.

Guidelines on the interpretation of aviation activities

The guidelines on the detailed interpretation of the aviation activities listed in Annex I of the Directive 2008/101/EC were approved by the Climate Change Committee on 3 April 2009 and adopted by the Commission on 8 June 2009.

EU ETS Verification Guidance for aviation

The EU ETS Verification Guidance for aviation has been produced at the request of the EU ETS Compliance Forum, comprising experts from Member State administrations and competent authorities dealing with the EU ETS, and its Aviation Task Force.

It clarifies the EU ETS requirements on verification and gives practical advice to verifiers, operators, competent authorities and accreditation bodies on how to interpret them in a uniform manner. It also considers how these requirements, as well as the Monitoring and Reporting Guidelines can be met efficiently and effectively, taking into account the scales and geographical spread of many aircraft activities.

The guidance does not only explain the basic steps that a verifier should follow in the verification process, but it also elaborates on how a verifier should assess and deal with some aviation-specific monitoring and reporting issues. Special attention is paid to the verification of reports of small non-commercial aircraft operators that are applying the Eurocontrol small emitters’ tool.

This guidance is not legally binding, though it is an interpretation by the Compliance Forum Aviation Task Force of the MRG requirements for verification in the aviation part of the EU ETS. National legislation will therefore take precedence. Aircraft operators and verification bodies should always contact the competent authority in the administering Member State on the national verification requirements.

You can find all relevant documents in the "Documentation" section (see top of this page).