IMPEL Completes Third Emissions Trading Scheme Project
By Lesley Worswick,

The European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) recently completed its third project on the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) Proposals for future development of the EU ETS - Phase II and Beyond.

The project had two main objectives: (1) Identify and develop guidance on priority interpretation issues and areas for clarification and evaluation of compliance with the requirements arising from the revision of the Monitoring and Reporting Guidelines in time for commencement of Phase II of the scheme; and (2) Critically analyse implementation of the ETS Directive and identify regulator priorities to feed into the European Commission's review of the Directive.

The project benefited from the input of representatives from regulatory bodies from 14 different EU countries, including new and accession states.

Outputs of the project include a series of recommendations relating to the forthcoming revision of the ETS Directive and a number of guidance notes on aspects of monitoring, reporting and verification.

Examples of the recommendations made include:

• The need for a clearer, harmonised definition of the term "combustion installation;"
• The need for an emissions threshold to remove the smallest emitters from the scheme;
• The exclusion of combustion units burning pure biomass;
• The need for a clear and systematic cost-benefit analysis of whether or not to include any additional sectors and gases; and
• The need for stronger, centralised quality assurance of verification accreditation bodies.

The results of the project have been sent to the European Commission to be used as input in the review of the EU ETS Directive that is underway. The guidance notes on monitoring, reporting and verification will be circulated to EU ETS practitioners.

The final report, including all of the technical guidance notes on monitoring and reporting can be found at this address.

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.

For further information contact
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Information on the Proposals for future development of the EU ETS - Phase II and Beyond and IMPEL can be found at this address.