UK Environment Agency awards IT contract to manage compliance requirements of the Aviation EU ETS
Fri 23 July 2010 – CDC Climat, a French provider of carbon market and climate change services and solutions, and UK-based IT company SFW have been awarded a contract by the Environment Agency of England and Wales (EA) to deliver a system that will enable the agency to manage the aircraft operators it is administering under the Aviation EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The application is an electronic workflow and messaging system that will allow carbon emissions monitoring, permitting, reporting and benchmarking. The system is based on a common set of requirements agreed by a number of EU member states and will be the first of its kind across the EU ETS. It will initially be used by the EA for managing its aviation requirements but it is anticipated the system will be extended to other emitting sectors.
The application has been designed to meet the requirements of the Aviation EU ETS and will replace various current systems in place at the agency. One of its many advanced features will be the use of the new XETL Business language specifically developed for trading by the European Commission. This will enable, claim CDC Climat and SFW, simpler and more accurate transfer of data in the future between operators and Competent Authorities.
Specific functions of the application include benchmarking, permitting, improvement planning, notification reporting, variation reporting, annual emissions reporting, emissions verification and inspection, payments and enforcement capabilities. The project will go live during the course of this year for benchmarking and first-year emissions reporting. A connection between the new system and the European Commission Single Registry (Carbon Allowance Banking System) is planned for 2012, when the scheme starts for aircraft operators.
The two companies also plan to work in partnership with other EU states and their relevant agencies in order to adapt the application to their own requirements.
“CDC Climat and SFW bring their extensive knowledge of carbon markets and proven track record of services and systems delivery for emissions trading schemes to this project,” commented Martin Ryder, the EA’s Contract Manager, Corporate Information Services. “We feel that this wealth of experience and knowledge gives us confidence that the coming deliverables will be right first time and meet the needs of all the stakeholder groups.”
Pierre Ducret, Chairman of CDC Climat, said: “We are convinced that the transparency and quality of monitoring, reporting and verification functions are key factors that ensure the proper functioning of emissions trading schemes. The EA and other EU member states will benefit from CDC Climat’s capacity to bring together partners on public interest projects and adapt it to meet their needs.”
CDC Climat, a subsidiary of France’s financial institution Caisse des Dépôts, was formed last February to offer carbon market and climate change services, and invest in carbon assets. It has been working with SFW since the inception of the carbon markets in 2005 and the two partners are responsible for the principal registries in the EU ETS, covering over 50% of EU member states.
