Explications (en)

Reference / document no. : L043-1928

to date have not been covered by the EU emissions trading scheme. This includes domestic flights as well as flights between Swiss and international airports outside the EU/EEA (in both directions).

2.3. Content of the Ordinance

The Ordinance regulates the following key points:

- Scope of application: In principle, the Data Acquisition Ordinance applies to all flights that take off from or land at Swiss airports. However, certain categories of flight operations, for example training flights, rescue flights and military flights, are exempted.

- Data acquisition: The number of tonne-kilometres has to be recorded in 2013 for every

aerodrome pair. Tonne-kilometres are calculated by multiplying the distance by the payload. The payload corresponds to the total weight of transported freight, mail and passengers.

- Monitoring and reporting: Initially, aircraft operators are required to draw up a monitoring plan and submit it to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) for approval. The monitoring plan must indicate how the tonne-kilometre data are to be recorded. The next step will be to record the tonne-kilometre data in the 2013 calendar year in accordance with the approved

monitoring plan. Aircraft operators will then be required to have the data recorded in the monitoring report verified by a verifier. The verified monitoring report then has to be submitted to the FOCA for approval.

- Penalties for non-compliance: The penalty for failure to submit a monitoring plan and/or monitoring report is a fine of up to 20,000 Swiss francs. For serious violations, this fine may be increased to a maximum of 40,000 Swiss francs.

Generally speaking, and unless stipulated elsewhere to the contrary, the provisions of the Ordinance that deal with the acquisition of tonne-kilometre data correspond to the EU provisions (EU Emissions

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Trading Scheme Directive ). Details regarding the individual provisions may be obtained from the explanatory notes on the respective articles (cf. section 4).

3. Relationship with the revised CO2 Act

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The revised CO2 Act was adopted by Parliament on 23 December 2011. The public consultation procedure concerning the associated ordinance will be initiated at the same time as the procedure for the Data Acquisition Ordinance

The Data Acquisition Ordinance solely regulates the one-time collection of data in 2013 and the subsequent reporting process in 2014. For the implementation of the tonne-kilometre data acquisition process, progress in the negotiations between Switzerland and the EU on the linking of the two

emissions trading schemes is essential. Depending on the status of these negotiations, however, the Federal Council may also consider the option of collecting the data at a later date. If the linking of the Swiss and EU emissions trading schemes including civil aviation is not possible by 1 January 2015 or even later, data acquisition could be postponed until 2014. In this case, the data acquisition process would have to be based on the revised CO2 Act, which is due to enter into force on 1 January 2013. This would mean that the legal basis for the Data Acquisition Ordinance would be Article 16 of the CO2 Act of 23 December 2011, which grants the Federal Council the option of requiring certain categories of company to participate in the emissions trading scheme. In order that the Federal Council is in the position to make aircraft operators participate, the data required under the Ordinance should be collected in advance.

If the acquisition of data is postponed, the provisions of the Data Acquisition Ordinance could be amended in line with the postponement or incorporated into the future ordinance on the revised CO2 Act.

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Directive 2008/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008

amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to include aviation activities in the scheme for greenhouse gas emission trading within the Community.

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