Industrial plants and airlines face fresh carbon reporting rules

An estimated 170 industrial sites across the UK have until the end of April to submit data to the government on their historic carbon emissions, under new EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) rules that came into effect at the start of the month.

From 2013, phase three of the ETS will come into effect extending the cap-and-trade scheme to cover a wider range of carbon intensive sites and companies.

In an attempt to avoid a repeat of the over-allocation of emission allowances that dogged the first phase of the scheme, the EU has introduced rules that will require those installations that will be included in the scheme for the first time in 2013 to provide data on their greenhouse gas emissions for the period from 2005 to 2008. The EU will then use the data to set the emissions cap for those facilities at an appropriate level and ensure that over allocation of allowances is avoided.

The UK government announced this week that those installations that will be brought into the ETS have until April 30 to provide historical emissions data.

They also have until June 30 to provide independently verified historical production data for the 2005-2008 period so that the government can work out how to allocate the distribution of free emission allowances during phase three of the ETS.

The installations affected by the new reporting rules include all large scale units where fuels are combusted, ferrous metal and aluminium plants that use over 20MW of thermal energy, as well as a number of chemicals and ceramics factories.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said that the government expected that around 170 individual installations would be affected. "The operators of installations new to the EU ETS in Phase III have been, and will continue to be contacted to inform them of their obligations and the deadlines pertaining to them," she added.

The announcement came as airlines operating routes that take off or land at EU airports also begin having to collect emissions data for the first time.

Airlines are to be included in the ETS from 2012 and are required to begin monitoring their emissions from the start of this year in order to provide the EU with data that will help establish an appropriate level of free allowance allocation.