UK Emissions Trading Scheme charges

These charges apply from the 01 April 2025.

If you have any queries relating to ETS charges then contact us at: ghghelp@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

Stationary Installations

Installations such as power stations, oil refineries, offshore platforms as well as industries producing iron and steel, cement and lime, paper, glass, ceramics and chemicals are classed as Stationary Installations.

Subsistence charges for stationary installations

The subsistence charge is payable annually and is based on your emissions. It covers the costs of:

• review of verified Annual Emission Reports (AER) and associated material
• review of verified activity level reporting
• maintaining your permit
• maintaining your use of the UK Registry
• processing notifications
• dealing with administrative or minor variations to Monitoring Plans and Monitoring Methodology Plans (MMPs)
• compliance inspections
• providing a help desk
• baseline data collection and review (excluding Ultra Small Emitters)

UK ETS subsistence charges for stationary installations in Wales

If you join the UK ETS part way through a year, you will be charged a portion of the subsistence charge according to the number of days left in the year.

The calculation will start from the date your permit is granted or transferred.

If you surrender your permit, or it’s revoked, and this happens part way through a year, we will refund a portion of the annual subsistence charge you have paid.

The calculation will be based on the number of days left in the year.

Applying for a new permit

You pay this when you apply for a new permit.

UK ETS new permit charges for stationary installations in Wales:

Applications for changes (variation) to existing permits

Significant Variation

These charges apply to significant changes because we need to carry out a technical assessment of your application to vary your permit.  Please check the variation charge below depending on whether you are a free allocation installation or not.

Minor Variation

These charges apply to a non-significant variation which requires minimal technical assessment and is not purely administrative.

Administrative Variation

These require no technical input, for example a change in company registered address.

Addition of a new activity to a permit will be charged as a new application.

The transfer charge is the same whether you are transferring all or part of your permit and is payable by either the transferor or the transferee (but not both).

The permit surrender or revocation charge is the same if you apply to surrender your permit or we serve a notice on you that we are revoking your permit. If the latter, we will send you an invoice.

If you are a hospital or small emitter installation and you apply to increase your emissions target after an increase in capacity, you are required to pay a charge and this covers the cost of your permit variation.

If the information you send in with your application is incorrect or incomplete, you may have to pay a further charge.

Charges for changes to existing UK ETS permits for stationary installations in Wales:

If you are not sure whether you need to pay a variation charge, please email GHGHelp@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

Aircraft Operators

Any person who operates an aircraft at the time of the flight is described as an aircraft operator

Subsistence charge for aircraft operators

The subsistence charge is payable annually and covers the costs of:

• maintaining you as an aircraft operator in the UK ETS
• processing notifications
• maintaining your use of the UK Registry
• dealing with administrative or minor variations to plans
• compliance auditing
• providing a help desk and resolving issues

The subsistence charge is made up of two parts. It has a fixed charge element called a base charge. You pay this if you are carrying out aviation activities for any part of the compliance year. The base charge is dependent on your emissions.

UK ETS subsistence charges for aircraft operators in Wales

If you qualify as a UK aircraft operator part way through a compliance year, you will be charged a pro-rata fee based on the number of days remaining in the year. The charge will start from the date on your emissions plan, not from the date you applied for the plan.

Within any one calendar year, if your emissions plan is suspended and then restarted again mid-year, the variable part of your charge will not be adjusted.

You also need to pay a variable charge that depends upon the length of time you have had an emissions plan in place during a compliance year.

UK ETS variable charges for aircraft operators in Wales

Permit applications and variations for aircraft operators

Not all permit variations incur a charge and if we think that the variation is only an administrative or minor change, you will not need to pay a charge.

The emissions plan variation charge may also be incurred if we have served you a variation notice.

The Application for Special Reserve also covers the cost of your application for your benchmarking plan.

Charges for UK ETS permit applications and variations for aircraft operators in Wales

If you are not sure whether you need to pay a variation charge, please email: GHGHelp@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

Common Elements of Charges

Pro-rata charges for subsistence fees

Where a permit is issued part way through the year the charges will be calculated on a pro-rata basis for the remaining period up to the end of the year.

Retail Price Inflation (RPI) increases

Each year NRW may increase charges up to (and including) the Retail Price Inflation (RPI) in line with increases in the Office for National Statistics measures of inflation as at 30 September in the immediately preceding year. Increases beyond RPI would only occur after we have consulted on such changes and had Ministerial approval to do so.

Hourly Rate

The hourly rate of £125 will be applied for any supplementary permitting work.

First-of-a-kind applications will be charged a standard application fee plus a supplementary hourly rate (where relevant).

Baseline data collection for Ultra Small Emitters (emissions <2,500t CO2e per annum that do not require a permit) is charged at £125 per hour.

Pre-application advice

We provide a discretionary service which is dependent on available capacity and is charged at the standard regulatory hourly rate of £125 per hour.

To request pre-application advice please email: GHGHelp@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

How to pay for your UK ETS permitting charges

• You must include your company name and UK ETS permit ID number with the payment. 
• You may pay for your UK ETS permitting charges by BACS electronic bank transfer or credit card by telephone.

Pay by BACS transfer

If you want to pay for your permit or licence application by electronic transfer please use the information below to make your payment.  

Company name: Natural Resources Wales
Company address: Income Department, PO Box 663, Cardiff, CF24 0TP
Bank: RBS
Address: National Westminster Bank Plc., 2 1/2 Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4BA
Sort code: 60-70-80
Account number: 10014438

When you're setting up your BACS transfer, please include your company name and UK ETS permit ID number in the reference section. 

Pay for your permit by telephone 

Call us on 0300 065 3000 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) 

Email: enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk 

If paying by telephone please choose option 5 to speak to an operator rather than option 3 and provide your company name and UK ETS permit ID number.