An aviation client agreed to send us EUAs. It initiated the transfer of allowances to us on 1st March 2013. The transfer never arrived. What could be wrong? Is the registry system not working again?
After some investigation it turns out that:
(i) The client had opted to go for “stop the clock” and would return the EUAAs relating to non-EU flights to the “competent” authority.
(ii) Therefore the European Commission blocked their account to prevent them making any outward transfers before the registry operator opened a new account for sending back the EUAAs.
(iii) The authorities failed to tell the airline that it had blocked the account. The airline was only sent a letter dated 7th March 2013, some six days after the aborted transfer.
Just another example of the shambolic communication by the people responsible for running the EU ETS, resulting in working capital being tied up in the system and additional costs, risk and frustration for the parties involved.
