Introduced by the European Union in its Member States with Directive 87/2003/EC, the EU ETS (Emissions Trading System) represents the turning point in European policies aimed at battling climate change, as well as representing the key tool to minimize costs related to greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the EU ETS is the most important carbon market in the world and remains the largest.

Since 2021 started so-called IV EU-ETS period, which covers an entire decade until 2030, divided into two sub-periods (2021-2025, 2026-2030). For the regulation of this period, the European Commission has issued the following legislative acts: For the regulation of this period, the European Commission has issued the following legislative acts:

• Regulation 2066/2018 /EU (so-called MRR Regulation) and subsequent amendments, aimed at the managers of plants falling within the EU ETS system for the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions
• Regulation 2067/2018 /EU (so-called AVR Regulation) and subsequent amendments which regulate the verification activities of the verification bodies and the rules for their accreditation
• Regulation 331/2019/EU (so-called FAR Regulation) aimed at the managers of plants falling within the EU ETS system for certain categories of activities for the allocation of free quotas in the two sub-periods valid for the fourth period
• Regulation 1842/2019/EU (so-called ALCR Regulation) addressed to the same managers of the FAR Regulation and which defines the rules for the adjustment of the free allocation of quotas following changes in the activity levels of the plants

The text of the Regulations as well as other documents of interest and detailed information on the functioning of the EU ETS System are available on the European Commission website.

IGQ has obtained accreditation, from the first transposition of Directive 87/2003 / EC, to offer its customers the service of verifying the communications of greenhouse gas emissions since 2006. Subsequently, IGQ extended its accreditation and is therefore authorized also to verify the declarations for the assignment of free quotas since 2011 (so-called BDR modules – Baseline Data Report) and for the changes relating to these assignments (so-called ALC modules – Activity Level Change).

In particular, IGQ is a verification body accredited by Accredia for the verification of communications of managers operating in the sectors listed in the accreditation certificate.