Basic information for participating in the nEHS

The National Emissions Trading System for Fuel Emissions Act (BEHG) provides the legal framework for the nEHS. The Emissions Reporting Ordinance (EBeV 2022) contains details for determining and reporting emissions. The Fuel Emissions Trading Ordinance (BEHV) regulates the conditions for surrendering emission certificates. The connecting factor for the responsibilities in national emissions trading is basically the emergence of an energy tax for each fuel placed on the market. A fuel is deemed to have been placed on the market as per BEHG if a tax obligation arises in accordance with the Energy Tax Act (EnergieStG) specified in Section 2(2) BEHG (exception being depositors). In 2021 and 2022, only the fuels listed in Annex 2 of BEHG will be subject to reporting and surrendering.

If you are a distributor (responsible in terms of BEHG), there are two main obligations for you in 2021 and 2022: you must submit an annual emissions report and surrender emission allowances amounting to your emissions.

12/10/2021

Guidelines

Our current guidelines are aimed at fuel distributors. They describe the scope applicable for the start-up phase of BEHG in 2021 and 2022, explain the regulations in the Emission Reporting Ordinance (EBeV 2022) and provide detailed information on the enforcement of nEHS.

12/10/2021

No monitoring plan

BEHG and EBeV 2022 envisage simplifications in the 2021 and 2022 monitoring and reporting to provide a quick introduction and efficient enforcement for you as a distributor and for us. One of the simplifications is that the obligation to submit and approve a monitoring plan has been waived.

You can find these and other changes for 2021 and 2022 in Chapter 5.1 of our Guidelines.

12/10/2021

Emissions report

If you are a distributor under the Fuel Emissions Trading Act (BEHG), you must prepare and submit an emissions report to DEHSt by 31 July of each year containing the fuels you placed on the market and the associated emission quantities from the previous year. This will be prepared for the first time by 31/07/2022 for the 2021 emissions using the data collection application provided by DEHSt at the DEHSt platform.

If you are a tax warehouse keeper that is merely a service provider and not an obligated party as per BEHG, you must prepare and submit a ‘Designation of Depositors’ report in the data collection application at the DEHSt platform.

The 2021 and 2022 emission reports and the ‘Designation of Depositors’ reports do not need to be verified.

Please note:

• Guideline: Chapter 7 of the Guideline describes the functionalities of the data collection application and the necessary data inputs for the preparation of an emissions report or a ‘Designation of Depositors’ report by pure service providers for 2021 and 2022.
• DEHSt platform: You must register on the DEHSt platform separately in order to be able to use it. The DEHSt platform page provides information on how to register.
• Template for the allocation of relief to EU ETS installations: An overview of the relevant volumes relieved allocated to the DEHSt file numbers of the EU ETS installations supplied must be attached to the emissions report in the case of relief being effected pursuant to Section 47(1)(3) EnergieStG (Energy Tax Act, Relief for the material use of natural gas) and Section 105a(1)(6) EnergieSt-DurchführungsVO (Energy Act Implementation Ordinance, Relief for the supply of fuels to foreign armed forces and headquarters). We will provide a template for this overview.

13/02/2023

Surrender obligation

Finally, as a distributor, you are obliged to surrender emission allowances in the national emissions trading registry by 30 September of each year. This means that for every tonne of CO2 you have emitted, you are required to surrender an emissions allowance that entitles you to emit that tonne of CO2. The first surrender obligation will be by 30/09/2022 amounting to the volume of fuel emissions you have reported in 2021.

To be able to surrender emission allowances you must have a compliance account in the national Emissions Trading Registry (nEHS Registry). You can apply to open a compliance account via the national Emissions Trading Registry from the 2nd quarter of 2021.

More information on opening an account and transactions in emission allowances can be found in Chapter 4 of our Guidelines and in the ‘National Registry’ section. Further information on the purchase and trading of emission allowances can be found in section ‘Acquisition and sale’.

12/10/2021

Overlaps between national and European emissions trading

While the operators of installations participating in the European Union emission trading system (EU ETS) determine and report the direct emissions from their installations (downstream approach), the emissions in the national emissions trading system (nEHS) are determined indirectly via the volumes of fuel placed on the market (upstream approach). In contrast to the EU ETS, therefore, it is not the emissions that have already been produced that are recorded, but the emissions that may be released at a later time when the fuels are burned.

Overlaps between national and European emissions trading (upstream and downstream approach) are therefore unavoidable.

If a fuel within the scope of BEHG is delivered and used in the same installation subject to the EU ETS, the emissions of this fuel are covered by both systems. Operators of these installations could therefore theoretically be burdened by both CO2 costs allocated to the fuel price under nEHS and the costs for the EU ETS emission allowances. Two mechanisms within BEHG can be used to avoid this:

Distributors can reduce their surrender obligation by the volume of fuel delivered and used in the EU ETS installations. This means that CO2 costs for the amount of fuel they deliver to an EU ETS installation do not have to be considered (see Chapter 6.7 in our Guidelines).

Alternatively, the operator of an EU ETS installation can apply for compensation for the additional pricing by nEHS. The finalised scheme for this process will be regulated by a legal ruling.

Note to EU ETS operators:

The ‘declaration of intent to use’ serves to coordinate the pricing between EU ETS operators and distributors at the time of delivery at a private economy level. DEHSt does not carry out individual checks or release declarations in advance.

The declaration must only be submitted to the DEHSt by the BEHG responsible in the emissions report by 31/07/ of each calendar year (starting in 2022), the same as the declaration for the exemption from BEHG costs of the fuel supply price. Both declarations (declaration of intention to use and declaration on exemption from BEHG costs) are part of the confirmation by the EU ETS operator (see Chapter 6.7 in our Guidelines).

12/10/2021