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Link to the Swiss ETS Registry

Since 1 January 2020, there’s an agreement to link the ETS registries of the EU ETS and the Swiss ETS. This link lets EU ETS participants benefit from a larger and transparent emissions trading market that offers greater flexibility for achieving the CO2 targets.

Both Switzerland and the European Union have an emissions trading system. The EU ETS covers around 11,000 installations, which emit approximately 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. The Swiss ETS is a lot smaller: about 50 installations and emissions of about 5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. 

Transactions between registries

The link between the two ETS registries became operational in 2021. As a result, transactions of emission allowances can now be made in both directions. The difference between European emission allowances (EUAs) and Swiss emission allowances (CHUs) is visible to the users of the registries. Installations and aircraft operators in the EU as well as in Switzerland can use both EUAs and CHUs to meet compliance obligations.

Transactions between the registries are processed at predetermined times, generally twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The calendar is available on the European Commission’s website, here you can see on which dates transactions are exempted due to holidays. 

  • Registry users can initiate transactions between the two registries at any time. The transactions will be processed on the next date on the transaction calendar.
  • Outgoing transfers from the European EU ETS Registry to the Swiss registry are subject to the regular transaction delay rules of the European EU ETS Registry.
  • Outgoing transfers from the Swiss ETS registry to the European registry are subject to the regular transaction delay rules of the Swiss ETS registry.