The CITL monitors, registers and validates all greenhouse gases emissions trading transactions between EU Member States. It implements the EC Directive and EU Regulation pertaining to greenhouse gas emissions reduction in Europe, on the basis of the Kyoto protocol agreements. The CITL was operational 3 years before the agreed timeframe for the Kyoto protocol (2008-2012), acting as a coordinator and facilitator of greenhouse gases emissions trading. The CITL successfully connected to the International Transaction Log in 2008 for the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol. More information on the CITL web page: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emission/citl_en.htm

Policy Context

The CITL implements the Commission Regulation of 21 December 2004 for a standardised and secured system of registries pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Decision 280/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. The regulation and directive refer both to the Kyoto Protocol and Conference of the Parties (COP) decisions. Link to legal texts: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emission/implementation_en.htm

Description of target users and groups

The two main target groups are: the industry and private persons: -Industrial sites with a capacity of 20 MW or more. This represents +-10000 installations across the EU. Covered sectors are: Chemical industries, waste managementt, energy and power sector. -Private persons may join the scheme as well as the banks, trading platforms, NGOs. All EU Member States are operational in the CITL. The CITL has expanded geographically to cover non-EU countries such as Norway and Lichtenstein and will continue to include more non-EU countries in time, to cover more greenhouse gases (CH4, PFC, HFC...), and more sectors (aviation, transport...).

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The project manager acted as a coordinator between autonomous organizations such as the Development team of the IT-solution, the hosting organization, the operational team, the legal department, the member states and representatives of the industry. Almost full delegation of responsibilities was the key element to the success of the project, relying on expert teams at every level. Regular meetings amongst the various stakeholders were organized; the constructive meeting discussions were feeding the decision process and the development team. Regular reviews of the priorities were organized and the project manager ensured that priorities were understood by all team members. Priorities were reviewed in order to achieve all important deadlines. Flexibility regarding the detailed tasks and activities was achieved by avoiding micro-management and heavy administrative procedures. Multi-channel issues: The system works exclusively in real-time and online. All server to server transactions involving GHG emission units occur through Web Services and the Internet. The CITL public site displays operational information about all exchange and participants. The CITL administrator site is available to the authorized personnel to control, monitor and validate the system. The CITL is supported by a HelpDesk that serves as a focal contact point for all matters arising from its operations.

Main results, benefits and impacts

Numerous reviews, scientific articles, statistics, reports are available as evidence of the positive impact of the system on its users (mainly national administration, European Commission, the industry). The way the system has been designed has allowed to gain the buy-in of the industry, who would have been reluctant to participate in an emissions reduction scheme otherwise. The awareness of the public for climate change cannot be anymore ignored; the EU ETS and the CITL are part of this awareness. Before the implementation of the system, two issues existed: 1. The price of the CO2 was ignored. 2. The amount of GHG emissions in Europe was estimated with great difficulties. As of today, thanks to the system, the market price of a equivalent ton of CO2 has been established and accurate figures regarding the total number of GHG emissions per industrial plant, per Member State and globally in the European Union are known and can be easily consulted through the CITL public site. The CITL implementation has been reused for development of its worldwide counterpart, the International Transaction Log, thereby speeding up its development and shortening its schedule and reducing its costs for the countries having ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Innovation: - The CITL implements the first C02 emissions trading scheme in the world. - The system is completely distributed, with components hosted by each Member State and monitored by the CITL, relying on the subsidiary principle. - Due to the sensitive nature of the information exchange (i.e. each transaction is typically woth hundreds of thousands of euros), very secure mechanisms were put in place between all administrations and the central system. - All communications are standardized using web services - Due to the distributed nature of the system, a reconciliation process has been designed to quickly detect and repair inconsistencies between the various databases involved

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The CITL implementation has been reused for development of its worldwide counterpart, the International Transaction Log, thereby speeding up its development and shortening its schedule and reducing its costs for the countries having ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The CITL architecture is inspiring other important initiatives such as the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) architecture.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - With adequate management it is possible to meet strong deadlines within budget, even in complex projects involving many actor types (private sector, public sector). Lesson 2 - Even complex regulations and business rules can be implemented at European level thanks to a relatively simple and user-friendly system. Lesson 3 - The reuse of several existing and proven in-house components (hosting, network, infrastructure technologies, ...) allows to reduce the risk and cost of the project. Scope: International