EU ETS 1 Scope

Full Scope

The full scope includes all flights that take off or land in the European Economic Area (EEA, i.e. the EU member states as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). Due to the linking agreement with Switzerland (since 01/01/ 2020) and the trade agreement with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (hereinafter UK) (since 01/01/2021), flights from Switzerland and the UK to the EEA are not included in the basic scope, as they are subject to the Swiss Emissions Trading Scheme and the UK Emissions Trading Scheme respectively (see also the section on the original full scope below).
The full scope must be used to categorise an aircraft operator as a small emitter. The thresholds of 25,000 tonnes of CO2 in annual emissions or 243 flights per period for three consecutive four-month periods under Article 55 of the Monitoring-Regulation (use of an estimation tool) or the threshold of 25,000 tonnes of CO2 in annual emissions under Article 28a(4) of the Emissions Trading Directive (exemption from the verification requirement when using Eurocontrol data) relate to this scope.

Extended Full Scope

The extended scope covers all flights that take off or land in the EEA. It should be noted that this also includes flights from Switzerland or the UK to the EEA, even though they are subject to the Swiss Emissions Trading Scheme or the UK Emissions Trading Scheme. This is intended to prevent aircraft operators from falling below the thresholds for the emissions trading obligation due to the corresponding reduction in the basic scope of application that the interaction of the three emissions trading systems entails.

The extended scope must be used to assess the emissions trading obligation of an aircraft operator. The thresholds of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 for annual emissions or 243 flights in the three consecutive four-month periods (January to April, May to August and September to December) for commercial aircraft operators specified in Annex I of the Emissions Trading Directive refer to the extended scope. The same reference also applies to the threshold of 1,000 tonnes of CO2 for the annual emissions of non-commercial aircraft operators.

Reduced Scope

The reduced scope initially covers all flights that take off and land in the EEA. However, there are special features for flights that affect so-called "outermost regions". In this regard, reference is also made to answer LV number 005.

Due to the agreements with Switzerland and the UK, flights from the EEA to Switzerland and the UK are also subject to the reduced scope of application, even though both countries are not part of the EEA.

The reporting and submission obligations currently relate to the reduced scope. The reduced scope also applies to the threshold of 3,000 tonnes of CO2 for annual emissions in accordance with Article 28a(4) of the Emissions Trading Directive (exemption from the verification requirement).

Original Full Scope

Especially when reviewing older publications it should be considered that the original full scope spanning 2010 to 2019 was “bigger” than the current full scope.

The full scope includes all flights departing from or arriving at the European Economic Area (EEA, covers all EU member states as well as Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein). Until the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the EU, flights between the UK and third countries had also been included (original full scope). Due to Brexit, these flights are not included anymore in the current full scope.

Furthermore, the original full scope also included flights from Switzerland into the EEA.

20/02/2024

CORSIA Scope

Reporting obligations under Art. 28c EHRL, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1603 (hereinafter CORSIA Regulation), TEHG and EHV only apply to aircraft operators that fulfil all of the conditions listed below:

• Aircraft operator holds an AOC issued by an EEA state or is registered in an EEA state. The same applies to outermost regions, overseas territories and dependencies of that EEA State.
• Aircraft operator generates annual CO2 emissions of more than 10,000 tonnes from aircraft with a maximum take-off mass of more than 5,700 kilograms.
• Aircraft operator operates flights between aerodromes in different EEA States or flights pursuant to Article 2(1) of the CORSIA Regulation (flights between aerodromes in EEA States and aerodromes in third countries; international flights between aerodromes in EEA States and aerodromes in outermost regions and overseas territories or dependencies of other EEA States; international flights between aerodromes in outermost regions and overseas territories or dependenciesof EEA States and aerodromes in third countries or overseas territories or dependencies of other EEA States).

Emissions from the following flights are excluded: state flights, humanitarian flights, medical flights, military flights and firefighting flights.

Under CORSIA, the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) is responsible for the following German and European aircraft operators (AOC stands for Air Operator Certificate), which:

• are assigned to Germany in accordance with the applicable list of administring member states pursuant to Article 18a EHRL,
• have a German AOC or
• have their registered office in Germany.

Aircraft operators that fall under the jurisdiction of the DEHSt and have general reporting obligations are also obliged to report their emissions from flights between aerodromes in two third countries in accordance with Section 8c (1) EHV. This mandatory regulation goes beyond the minimum requirements of the CORSIA Regulation, which only requires voluntary reporting in Article 2 (3).

20/02/2024

Overlaps between the Scopes

The following overview shows the scopes of the EU ETS 1 and CORSIA for different categories of flights, whereby flights within the CH ETS are also included due to the linking agreement between the EU ETS 1 and the Swiss emissions trading system (CH ETS):

*To avoid double charging, aircraft operators based in the EEA are exempt from the offsetting obligation under CORSIA for this category of flights.

Further and more detailed information can be found on the website of the European Commission.

20/02/2024