The European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) is an informal network of the environmental authorities of the Member States, acceding and candidate countries of the European Union and Norway. The expertise and experience of the participants within IMPEL make the network uniquely qualified to work on certain of the technical and regulatory aspects of EU environmental legislation. The Network’s objective is to create the necessary impetus in the European Community to make progress on ensuring a more effective application of environmental legislation.

The second IMPEL project on Options and Proposals for Consistency in the Implementation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme recently concluded. This project reviewed the first year of operation of the EU ETS and developed good practice guidance in relation to four key areas:

1. Small installations;
2. Verification;
3. Compliance and enforcement; and
4. Monitoring and reporting.

What were the project outputs?

In addition to an overview report, which summarises the first year's experience of implementing the EU ETS from the perspective of the regulators who participated in the project, four good practice guides have been produced relating to each of the key areas considered. These reports were adopted by the IMPEL plenary in June 2007 and can be accessed via the IMPEL website at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/impel/eu_ets.htm.

IMPEL’s project reports will advise the Commission on issues of interpretation and implementation for the EU ETS and should also help regulators to adopt common principles and procedures.

What were the key findings of the project?

The main focus of the project was to use experience from the first year of implementation to draw out best practices and use this to produce good practice guidance. However, the opportunity was also taken to summarise the experiences in an overview report.

Small installations. There are considerable concerns regarding the number of small installations covered by the EU ETS and the burden placed upon these by the scheme’s requirements. Specific difficulties have been encountered particularly in relation to fragmented sites due to the difficulties in determining the boundary of an installation.

Verification. In the short term regulators are keen that verification continually improves, initially focusing on technical issues and interpretation. In the longer term there is a desire for a more consistent and comparable approach across Member States. The project highlighted the importance of accreditation and the need for accreditation bodies to take a harmonised approach to ensuring verifier quality.

Compliance and enforcement. In relation to assessing compliance and enforcement, different approaches were taken in different Member States, which reflected their respective regulatory traditions and the ways in which they have chosen to implement the EU ETS. Experience with the first phase of the EU ETS (i.e. from 2005 to 2007) is being used to inform the future approach to assessing compliance.

Monitoring and reporting. In relation to monitoring and reporting, regulators took a largely pragmatic approach in the first phase. The revised Monitoring and Reporting Guidelines have addressed many issues of concern to regulators, but there is still scope for some clearer guidance on a number of issues, which are being taken forward in a follow-up project.

IMPEL EU ETS III Proposals for future development of the EU ETS – Phase II and beyond

The 3rd IMPEL EU ETS project, which is currently underway, has two main objectives:

1. To identify and develop guidance on priority interpretation issues and areas for clarification and the evaluation of compliance with the requirements arising from the revision of the Monitoring and Reporting Guidelines in time for commencement of Phase II.
2. To critically analyse implementation of the ETS Directive and identify regulator priorities to feed into the Commission's review of the Directive.

The first workshop, held in March 2007, was attended by representatives from regulatory bodies from 14 different countries, including new and accession states. The proceedings of this workshop were reported to the ECCP working group on the Directive Review in April 2007 and the final report will be submitted for adoption by the IMPEL plenary in December 2007.

For further information contact lesley.ormerod at environment-agency.gov.uk. Information on IMPEL and its work can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/impel.