1. What is the National Emissions Trading Registry for?

The National Emissions Trading Registry is the platform for implementation of the national emissions trading system. It is an online accounting system, which ensures that the issuance, holding, transfer, acquisition, cancellation and surrender of emission credits are accurately recorded. The credits exist only in an electronic form. 

Possibilities for Swiss companies

Swiss companies can undertake a legally binding commitment to reduce energy-related CO2 emissions and thus accept a reduction target. In return, these companies are exempted from the CO2 tax. For the years in which they are exempted from the tax, they are allocated emission allowances (in tonnes of CO2) corresponding to their reduction target.  

They are then obliged to surrender sufficient emission credits to cover the emissions reported in the monitoring system. The companies do this themselves, by transferring the emission credits used from the holding account to the surrendering account within the Registry.

Companies with emissions in excess of their available allowances are required to purchase certificates or emission allowances to make up the shortfall. Surplus emission credits can either be sold to other companies or carried over to the post-2012 commitment period.

Participation in the flexibility mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol  

The Registry also enables Switzerland to participate in the flexibility mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol (International Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation, Clean Development Mechanism). Each transaction in the Registry is checked and approved by a central office (UN climate secretariat, UNFCCC) by means of an electronic log-book (International Transaction Log, ITL).

Other actors as well as the companies exempted from the CO2 tax are allowed to participate in the emissions trading scheme. For this purpose, they are required to maintain an account in the Registry.

Publication of the data

As the lead agency for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the CO2 Act, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) is also responsible for managing the Registry. Under the Ordinance of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) on the National Emissions Trading Registry, Registry data must be published electronically unless it is specially entitled to protection.

2. Login, opening an account, forms for the National Emissions Trading Registry

Fees

The fee for the opening of an account and the yearly management of the account are calculated according to the Ordinance on the National Emissions Trading Registry and charged by the hour (140 Swiss francs per hour). In principle, the following costs can be expected: