Benchmarking CO2 emissions from European refineries

The regulatory landscapeUnder the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Directive, industrial emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) must deliver emission permits or allowances every year that equal their actual GHG emissions for that year.

In the first and second trading periods of the ETS Directive, the majority of these allowances were distributed free of charge using historical emissions as the distribution mechanism (so-called ‘grandfathering’) and with a common GHG reduction percentage.