Article 9 of the Emissions Trading Directive establishes that each Member State periodically has to develop a National Allocation Plan (NAP).
These establish the emissions target for the covered sectors, as well as deciding how this target is divided among the various installations covered by the system. The first NAPs for the period 2005-7 had to be published and notified to the Commission and the other Member States by 31 March 2004. The ten new Member States had two months more for the same task. In general, most MS submitted their NAPs after the deadline had passed, the last one (from Greece) only came in December 2004.
All NAPs were then subject to an assessment and approval by the European Commission, which has so far decided on 21 of the 25 plans, with Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Greece missing. The current state of the process and most relevant documents can be viewed best at the European Commission’s NAP pages.
NAPs for the period 2008-12 will have to be submitted by the end of June 2006, giving the responsible officials no time to rest. NGOs will again by demanding to be heard in their design and come armed with an assessment of the first round
NGO Views
The success of the Emissions Trading Directive depends critically on the integrity of the national allocation plans. These plans must set targets that produce real emission cuts. They must be in line with each EU country meeting its target under the burden sharing agreement. However, countries which are well below their Kyoto targets, particularly Germany and the UK, should not be allowed to give their industry an “easy ride” for this reason. The process of setting these targets must be, as stated in the Directive, objective, transparent and open to public comment and feedback.
Environmental NGOs have been monitoring the NAP processes all over the EU critically and have sent their comments to their national governments and to the European Commission.
- Assessment of Key National Allocation Plans for phase II of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme – CAN-E, WWF and Agreenet, UPDATED February 2007
- CAN Europe Full Report – National Allocation Plans 2005-7: Do they deliver? Key lessons to member states for 2008-12 – CAN-E May 2006
- Application of the emissions trading directive by EU Member States (Technical report No 2) – EEA April 2006
- The potential for and implications of extending the EU emissions trading system to include industrial sources of nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases – CAN-E and IEEP, April 2006
- CAN Europe Summary for policy makers: National Allocation Plans do they deliver? Key lessons for Phase II of the EU ETS – CAN-E March 2006
- Position paper on Emissions Trading: improvements for phase 2 (2008-12) – CAN-E June 2005
- NGO Letter: Disappointment over Czech national allocation plan and climate policy – CAN-E 5 October 2004
- Press Release: CANCEE report on NAPs in the new member states, CANCEE 21 October 2004
- Independent NGO analysis of National Allocation Plans of new member states, CANCEE, October 2004
- Letter to President Prodi before first NAP decision, CAN-Europe and CAN-CEE, 2nd July 2004
- BELGIUM: Avis d’Inter-Environnement Wallonie sur le Projet de plan d’allocation wallon de quotas d’?missions de gaz ? effet de serre, Directive 2003/87/CE, Enqu?te publique du 3/5/2004 au 2/6/2004 – Formulaire de r?ponse.
- Comments to the proposed National Allocation Plan of Slovenia, 6th May 2004, Focus – Association for Sustainable Development, Umanotera – Slovene Foundation for Sustainable Development.
- Environmental groups alarmed by lack of progress on targets for EU industry emission trading, Press Release, 5/02/2004
- Public participation in the national allocation plan process, letter to EU and Accession States Environment Ministers. (14th November 2003)
