The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Auctioning Regulations 2021

Annual volumes of allowances

9.—(1) The volume of allowances to be auctioned in any calendar year must be AC – ((AFA) + IC +RFS + NER), where—

(a) “AC” is the base for the scheme year, determined in accordance with article 22 of the Trading Scheme Order, multiplied by the hospital and small emitter reduction factor for that year, determined in accordance with article 21 of the Trading Scheme Order;

(b) “AFA” is—

(i) total number of allowances to be allocated free of charge under article 34K of the Trading Scheme Order (the aviation free allocation) in the scheme year, or

(ii) if the number in paragraph (i) is not known, the notional number of allowances to be allocated in the scheme year in question as part of the aviation free allocation, determined in accordance with paragraph (9),

(c) “IC” is the industry cap for that calendar year, determined in accordance with Article 16a(6) of the free allocation regulation,

(d) RFS means the flexible share referred to in Article 16a(2)(b) of the free allocation regulation, and

(e) “NER” is the total number of allowances to be allocated free of charge for that calendar year as approved by the UK ETS under article 34G of the Trading Scheme Order.

(2) Where AFA as determined during the calendar year under paragraph (1)(b)(i) (“AFA1”) is greater that the notional number of allowances determined under paragraph (1)(b)(ii) (“AFA2”), a number of allowances equal to AFA1 minus AFA2 is to be removed from the total number of allowances to be auctioned in that calendar year, and the auctioneer must adjust the number of allowances to be auctioned at the auctions to be held during the year after AFA1 has been established as the auctioneer considers appropriate.

(3) When AFA1 is less than AFA2, a number of allowances equal to AFA2 minus AFA1 is to be added to the total number of allowances to be auctioned in that calendar year, divided between the auctions which are to be held during that year after AFA1 has been established as the auctioneer considers appropriate.

(4) The auctioneer may not add additional allowances to any auction if doing so would increase the volume of allowances at that auction to more than 125% of the volume first proposed for that auction, unless the allowances are being added to an auction pursuant to paragraph (3).

(5) Any subsequent change to the volume of allowances to be auctioned in a given calendar year must be accounted for in the volume of allowances to be auctioned in a subsequent calendar year.

(6) In exceptional circumstances, in particular where the cumulative annual value of such changes does not exceed 50,000 allowances, these changes may be accounted for in the volume of allowances to be auctioned in any subsequent calendar year.

(7) Any volume of allowances that may not be auctioned in a given calendar year due to the rounding required by regulation 5(1) must be accounted for in the volume of allowances to be auctioned in the subsequent calendar year.

(8) Where the volume of allowances to be auctioned in a calendar year is increased under paragraph (3), the UK ETS authority may direct the registry administrator to create additional allowances for auction in that year.

(9) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b)(ii), the notional number of allowances to be allocated as part of the aviation free allocation in the scheme year is set out in the following table.

Scheme year	Notional aviation free allocation
2021	5,181,021
2022	5,064,474
2023	4,947,928
2024	4,831,381
2025	4,714,835
2026	4,598,288
2027	4,481,742
2028	4,364,195
2029	4,248,649
2030	4,132,103

(10) For the purposes of this regulation, “the free allocation regulation” is Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331 of 19 December 2018 determining transitional Union-wide rules or harmonised free allocation of emission allowances pursuant to Article 10a of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, as that regulation forms part of domestic law under section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal Act) 2018.