UK Postpones Emissions Registration Deadline

The UK government is delaying the August 31 deadline for aircraft operators to register for the European Union’s new emissions trading scheme (ETS) and to file a plan for the monitoring, reporting and verification of their carbon emissions. According to the British Business and General Aviation Association, the revised deadline is likely to be around mid-November, but this won’t be confirmed until next week. The main reason for the delay is that the European Commission is preparing to issue an expanded list of operators who will be subject to ETS and the European countries that will be responsible for processing their ETS submissions. This is expected by mid-August, but sources close to the process have indicated that this schedule might also slip since it falls in the middle of the European vacation season. Other EU states have also been working toward an August 31 deadline for operators to register for ETS compliance. Industry sources now believe that they too will be obliged to push back the deadline since most of the states are understood to be even further behind in the implementation process than UK officials. Operators face the prospect of significant fines for not registering for ETS on time.