Climate Protection Inventories
To contain the consequences of climate change and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, companies from different sectors within the European Union are obliged to take part in the EU European Emissions Trading System – ETS. Depending on the power and capacity limits, this also includes operators of energy generation facilities, aircraft operators and productive industry, such as oil refineries, manufacturers of iron and nonferrous metals, the ceramic and chemical industry and paper manufacturers. Specifically this is regulated by the EU Emissions Trading Directive (2003/87/EC), which passed into German law in the form of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Act (TEHG).
Annual reporting and testing
European emissions trading involves a market-based cap-and-trade system. This means that operators of plants and aircraft who are subject to mandatory emissions trading are allocated greenhouse gas emission rights. These must be returned to the competent authorities in the equivalent value of the greenhouse gases actually emitted – expressed in CO2 equivalents. Within the framework of this system, companies subject to mandatory emissions trading must draw up an inventory of their CO2 every calendar year and arrange for the corresponding emission or tonne-kilometre reports (in the case of aircraft operators) to be reviewed by an accredited testing body such as TÜV NORD.