In the field of EU ETS the AVR 2018/2067/EU Art. 43 was amended i.a. by 2020/2084/EU adding a. Para (8) as follows:
If the EU ETS lead auditor undertakes annual verifications for a period of five consecutive years for a given installation, then the EU ETS lead auditor shall take a three consecutive year break from providing verification services to that same installation. The five years maximum period includes EU ETS verifications of emissions or allocation data performed for the installation starting after 1 January 2021.’;
On request of the NAB an accredited Verification Body (VB) submitted information to the NAB about the assignments of Lead Verifiers (LVs) for installations covering the assessments 2021-2031 as requested by the NAB with the VBs staff that acted as Lead Verifier (2021-2025) / installation or are planned to be assigned as a Lead Verifiers (2026-2031) / installation.
In this plan the VB changes the Lead Verifier (LV) from 2026 onwards every 4 years, then assigns another competent VB staff-member as Lead Verifier for 1 year and then switches back to the original Lead Verifier for 4 years, and so on.
The Article 43 (8) specifically requires a change of Lead Verifiers for an installation after 5 years with a 3 years break afterwards.
This means, that the break in the plan submitted to AA by the VB not only is less than the 3 years but as well less than 4 (years) / 5 (years) * 3 (years break) = 2,4 years.
Questions:
- Is the understanding correct, that only from 01.01.2021 onwards the time of the 5 years period requiring a change of the Lead Verifiers acc. to AVR Art.l 43 (8) has started, thus would not have been needed to be calculated retroactively?
- As the VB does not plan to use a Lead Verifier ever for 5 years subsequently, do EA ABs see a legally defendable argument to request, that the change of Lead Verifiers must at least be:
- either 37.5 % (3 years within 8 years) of the verifications / specific installation time or
- even for a required minimum break of 3 years after an assignment as Lead Verifier before performing a verification as Lead Verifier again?
September 2025
- YES, the application of the requirement related to the five-year maximum period refers to verifications performed for a given installation starting from the verification of 2021 emissions data and annual activity level data.
- NO, an explicit requirement for a specified period of three-year break shall be applied only when annual verifications for five consecutive years have been conducted in a given installation. Other scenarios with less than five consecutive year verifications are possible in which cases, however there is no requirement specifying a minimum time period of break other than one year.