Caminando juntos en la experiencia de Cristo migrante.

The TEHG has appointed the Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) to be the competent authority for the emissions trading system at the federal state level. UBA has established a special agency in order to perform the tasks of the competent

authority. This agency is the German Agency for Emissions trading, (Deutsche Emissionshandelstelle, DEHSt) which manages most of the institutional tasks set by the directive and national legislation.

The Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) has intensively prepared the tasks and organised the resources required by the DEHSt. The goal is, in addition to the main directive tasks, to offer services for the participating firms, experts, traders and authorities. With these measures the German UBA will receive a new component for national and international climate policy.

The tasks of the DEHSt include:

• allocation and issuance of the allowances

• monitoring of the emission reports and possible penalizing

• account management of the national and trading accounts, i.e. registry • national and international reporting of the system

• cooperation with the UN climate secretariat and EU

• establishing the NAP for the coming periods by supporting the work of the Ministry of Environment (Bundesumweltministerium)

• supporting the integration work of other climate instruments (CDM/JI) (DEHSt 2004) The goal of the work of the DEHSt is to achieve implementation of emission allowance trading that is optimally targeted and with so little need of bureaucratic as possible. The DEHSt intends to achieve customer-centred implementation of its functions. This means, inter alia, keeping transaction costs for the companies low. The trading of emission allowances offers the chance to meet emission reduction targets in an economically efficient manner by enabling the companies to adopt the most cost-effective measures in each case. Existing legal reporting requirements will be taken into account.

Another important goal of the DEHSt's work is to reach and maintain competition neutrality, ecological integrity and low transaction costs (DEHSt 2004). Below, some enforcement and compliance related tasks, relevant to this study, are given further consideration. First, the register is examined and next, the monitoring and reporting related institutions are presented.

The DEHSt has lately been in a hurry to create a registry for the ETS. Instead of creating a separate and own register the DEHSt decided to find an existing system and make necessary adaptations to it. The DEHSt will offer software for the registry which could then serve the customers in German, English and French. The procedures of the registry follow those used in online-banking procedures, the emphasis being on safety and simplicity.

Everyone who wishes to trade allowances must have an account in the registry. An application for an account can be send for the DEHSt and it charges a fee of 200 € for opening either an installation or an individual account. Thereafter the account owner also receives an electronic signature. The trades and transfers regarding allowances are then documented in the registry: which allowances from whom, at what time and to whom are traded. (DEHSt 2004).

Registries are thus closely linked with trading. Cooperation between the trading platform and the registry is important. DEHSt works to increase the dialog between the traders and the registry, stressing at the same time that the DEHSt is not a trading platform. The registry controls that the amount of allowances and the accounts stay in balance.

In Germany, all transfers will be carried out in a national registry. Germany has signed a contract with the French registry system (Seringas Software20). The system will be adapted to German conditions and tested before it can start working on full steam. The cooperation between Germany and the French has already been long-lasting and it is supposed to be useful for both Member States. (Schüz 2004.)

As the registries are electric online services, they face many security challenges. In addition, the transparency of trading is an issue of security. The directive obligates the information of the registries to be open for public access but at the same time there is a requirement by the installations to keep their names anonymous in the name of business confidentiality. (Frémont 2004.)

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Monitoring in the context of this study means the installations' own monitoring of its annual emissions. According to the directive and Commission guidelines, monitoring must follow certain regulations and calculations which are defined separately for different types of installations depending on their production. Monitoring is of high significance because the amount of surrender allowances is based on it. Independent verifiers play a very significant role. They must be able to discover all acts of non- compliance in order to ensure the credibility of the system.

DEHSt has made and published a list of the experts and consultants that offer monitoring and reporting related services. These environmental experts or organisations have been accredited by a German accreditation firm Deutsche Akkreditierungs- und Zulassungsgesellschaft für Umweltgutachter (DAU) or are chosen by the local Chamber

of Industrie and Commerce (IHK, Industrie- und handelskammer). This list of the

experts is available on the internet at the DEHSt homepage.21 The criteria concerning accredited verifiers are set by DAU and applications for accreditation are processed by the DEHSt.

According to the jurisdiction of emission trade matters shared by the federal and state governments, an appointment as an expert assessor by the German Allowances Trading Authority only grants the right to review allocation applications. Expert assessors for annual reporting will be appointed by the appropriate public authority in each federal state.

The monitoring takes place as follows. The operator reports its emissions data to a formula into special software where it comes available for the expert. If the examiner finds the data accurate it gives a certificate to the operator. This certificate shows that the operator has fulfilled its requirements. DEHSt has created standards for the distribution of the certificates in order to ensure the system’s credibility. DEHSt is also responsible for authority monitoring of the ETS in Germany. According to the TEHG (Art. 21) the competent authority must have the needed information and availability to monitor the installation if needed. (DEHSt 2004.)

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http://www.dehst.de/nn_76354/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Sachverst_C3_A4ndige_20Anmeldeformul ar/Sachverstaendigenliste_20_28PDF_29.html

The detailed rules for reporting are set in the TEHG (Art 5). It also defines the requirements for verifiers of emission reports. Penalties on malpractices regarding the reporting of the emissions, cancellation of the allowances or other breach in the operators' commitments are set in the TEHG (Art 17-19). Paying the penalties does not absolve the operator of cancelling the missing allowances. The name of the penalised operator will be published according to the name and shame-principle. The fees can be up to 50000 €. (TEHG, Art 19.)