EU ETS: charges
Charges for installation and aircraft operators and for Union Registry users.
EU ETS: Installation charges
You need to pay the following charges.
Permit application charge
You pay this when you apply for a new permit and monitoring plan. It also covers the cost of opening an Operator Holding Account (OHA) in the Union Registry.
These annual emissions charges are the reportable emissions likely to be emitted from your installation in a calendar year:
- less than 50 kilotonnes (kt) per year: £1,340
- at least 50kt and no more than 500kt: £2,500
- more than 500kt per year: £5,970
Subsistence charge
The subsistence charge: £3,065.
This is an annual charge payable on 1 April each year and covers the Environment Agency’s costs of:
- maintaining your permit
- maintaining your use of the Union Registry
- processing notifications
- dealing with administrative changes or variations to monitoring plans
- compliance inspections
- providing a help desk
- compliance audit activities if you are an excluded installation
If you join EU ETS part way through a year, you will be charged a portion of the subsistence charge according to the number of days left in the year. The calculation will start from the date your permit is granted or transferred.
If you surrender your permit, or it is revoked, and this happens part way through a year, we will refund a portion of the annual subsistence charge you have paid. The calculation will be based on the number of days left in the year.
Permit transfer
The transfer charge is the same whether you are transferring all or part of your permit.
Permit transfer charge: £430.
Permit surrender or revocation
The charge is the same if:
- you apply to surrender your permit
- we serve a notice on you to revoke your permit - we will send you an invoice
Permit surrender or revocation charge: £670.
Apply for allowances from the New Entrants Reserve (NER)
NER application charge: £1,120.
Apply to increase your emissions target
If you are an excluded operator and you apply to increase your emissions target after an increase in capacity, we will charge you £1,120. This covers the cost of your permit variation.
If we need to make another amendment to your target because the information you send in with your application is incorrect or incomplete, you may have to pay a further charge.
EU ETS: Aviation charges
Application charges
You pay this when you apply for a new emissions plan. It also covers the cost of opening an Aircraft Operator Holding Account (AOHA).
Apply for:
- emissions plan: £750
- benchmarking plan: £830
Subsistence charges
The subsistence charge: £3,135.
This is an annual charge and covers the Environment Agency’s costs of:
- maintaining you as an aircraft operator in the EU ETS
- processing notifications
- maintaining your use of the Union Registry
- dealing with administrative changes or variations to emissions plans
- compliance auditing
- providing a help desk and dealing with issues
If you qualify as a UK aircraft operator part way through a compliance year, you will be charged a pro-rata fee based on the number of days remaining in the year. The charge will start from the date on your emissions plan, not from the date you applied for the plan.
Charge for application to the Special Reserve
You need to pay a charge of £1,120 when you submit an application for free allowances from the Special Reserve. This also covers the cost of your application for your benchmarking plan.
Determining emissions charge: all operators
In some circumstances, for example if you do not submit your annual emissions report, the Environment Agency will charge £125 per hour to estimate your annual reportable emissions. We will send you an invoice for any costs incurred.
Union Registry charges
The cost of opening a new OHA or AOHA is included in the application charge for a new permit or emissions plan. The charges are:
- to open a person holding account or trading account: £915
- an annual subsistence charge for a person holding account, former operator holding account, or trading account: £255 per annum
You need to pay the full year’s subsistence charge even if you have only held an account for part of a year.
To open a Verifier account costs: £500.
Change or nominate ARs or AARs
You do not pay for the first 2 Authorised Representatives (ARs) or Additional Authorised Representatives (AARs) required at account application. However, any additional or replacement ARs and AARs will incur a charge of £880.
Where the application for a verifier account only nominates one person to act as the AR, there is no charge for that verifier’s first subsequent application to nominate or change an AR.
External trading platforms
External trading platforms can be connected to the Union Registry to facilitate the trading of allowances and Kyoto units between several third parties.
The Environment Agency charges £125 per hour to assess applications for external trading platform accounts. The cost of work carried out by third parties like IT consultants will be passed on to the owners of those external trading platforms.
Last updated 1 April 2018 + show all updates
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Updated the Environment Agency's charges. These take effect on 1 April 2018.
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First published.