Tradable units

EU allowances and Kyoto units

In the pilot phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme from 2005-2007 companies traded only EU Allowances (EUAs). On 1 January 2008 international emissions trading under the Kyoto Protocol started. Austrian account holders may trade the following types of allowances and Kyoto units in the period 2008-2012:

• EU Allowances (EUAs): allowances for emissions trading within Europe (European Emissions Trading Scheme). One EUA grants its holder the right to emit one tonne of CO2 (carbon dioxide) or CO2 equivalent in a certain period of time. EUAs are referred to as ‘AAU/from 2008’ in the Austrian emissions trading registry.

• Emissions Reduction Units (ERU), which were converted from Assigned Amount Units (AAU) (ERU from AAU): Kyoto units that are generated from Joint Implementation projects. The host countries, in which projects are carried out, convert a number of AAUs into ERUs. Then, these units are transferred from the registry in the host country to the registry in the investor’s country and are credited to the investor’s account.

• Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs): CERs are Kyoto units which are generated from Clean Development Projects. All CERs are handled through a specific CDM registry.

The following Kyoto units may only exceptionally be held on Austrian operator and person holding accounts and are subject to special permits:

• Assigned Amount Units (AAUs): AAUs are the tradable units of the Assigned Amount (AA), which a country with a reduction commitment (Annex B country) gets allocated under the Kyoto Protocol.

• Removal Units (RMU): Kyoto-Einheiten, die Annex-B-Vertragsstaaten z. B. durch nationale Aufforstungsmaßnahmen und andere Senkenmaßnahmen generieren.

• Emissions Reduction Units (ERU), die aus RMU konvertiert wurden (ERU aus RMU): Diese Einheiten stammen aus Joint Implementation-Projekten im Zusammenhang mit Senkenmaßnahmen.

• tCER und lCER: Diese Subtypen von CER haben nur eine begrenzte Gültigkeitsdauer und stammen aus Aufforstungsprojekten in Ländern ohne Reduktionsverpflichtung (Nicht-Annex-I-Staaten).