The European Commission published its annual forecast for 2011 which highlights that emissions of greenhouse gases from installations participating in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) decreased by more than 2% last year. However, it also informed that there is still a growing buffer of unused allowances.

The information provided by Member State registries shows for the Commission's annual forecast 2011 that the emissions of greenhouse gases from installations participating in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) decreased by more than 2%. At the same time, there is still a growing buffer of unused allowances. For this reason, the Commission is currently reviewing the time profile of phase 3 auctions with a view to reducing the number of allowances for auction in the early years of phase 3.

In particular, data shows that despite an expanding European economy, verified emissions of greenhouse gases from installations participating in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) dropped to 1.889 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent last year, more than 2% below the 2010 level. The EU ETS covers more than 12,000 power plants and manufacturing installations in the 27 EU member states, Norway and Liechtenstein and, from this year, emissions from airlines flying to and from airports in these countries.

Furthermore, the forecast shows the high level of compliance from installations. It is also the second year of emissions reporting from aircraft operators with very high level of compliance. On the other hand, last year's record use of international credits has increased the buffer of unused allowances by some 450 million. This means more than 900 million more allowances have been put into circulation than were surrendered for compliance use over the period 2008-2011.