Operation of certification schemes
1. In order to demonstrate compliance with this Regulation, an operator or a group of operators shall participate in a certification scheme recognised by the Commission pursuant to Article 13.
2. Certification schemes shall operate in an independent manner on the basis of reliable and transparent rules and procedures, in particular with regard to internal management and monitoring, handling of complaints and appeals, stakeholder consultation, transparency and publication of information, appointment and training of certification bodies, addressing non-conformity issues, and development and management of certification registries.
Certification schemes shall set transparent fees and make information about those fees easily accessible to operators, including by publishing them on their websites.
Certification schemes shall put in place easily accessible complaint and appeal procedures. Information about those procedures shall be made publicly available in the certification registry or, once established, in the Union registry.
3. Certification schemes shall verify whether the information and data submitted by an operator or a group of operators for the certification of compliance pursuant to Article 9 were subject to independent auditing and whether the certification of compliance, including the re-certification audit reports, was carried out in an accurate, reliable and cost-effective manner.
4. Certification schemes shall at least annually publish in their certification registries or, once established, in the Union registry a list of the appointed certification bodies, stating for each certification body by which national accreditation body it was accredited or by which national competent authority it was recognised and which national competent authority is monitoring it.
5. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts setting out the structure, format, technical details and process required for the purposes of paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article which are to apply to all certification schemes recognised by the Commission. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 17.
Union registry for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming and carbon storage in products, and certification registries
1. The Commission shall establish by 27 December 2028 and thereafter duly maintain a Union registry for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming and carbon storage in products, to make publicly available the information related to the certification process in an accessible way, containing, as a minimum, the information set out in Annex III.
When establishing the Union registry, the Commission shall take into account the reports referred to in Article 30(5), point (a), of Directive 2003/87/EC and Article 17(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/841.
The Union registry shall use automated systems, including electronic templates, to make publicly accessible in a secure way the information related to the certification process, including the certificates of compliance and updated certificates of compliance, to enable the tracing of the quantity of certified units and avoid double counting.
The Union registry shall be financed by annual fixed fees payable by users. Those fees shall be proportionate to the use of the Union registry and sufficient to contribute to the coverage of the establishment costs and annual operating costs of the Union registry, such as those for staff or IT tools.
Resources from such fees shall constitute external assigned revenue for the purpose of Article 21(5) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046. That revenue shall, in particular, cover the costs of IT tools, services and security, including the operation and licensing systems, and the costs of staff working on the management of the Union registry.
2. The Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 16 to supplement this Article by laying down the necessary requirements concerning the Union registry, including rules to ensure sufficient oversight of the trading of certified units, and the factors to be considered for determining the level of fees referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and their recovery.
During each last quarter of the year preceding the calendar year of application, the Commission shall adopt one or more implementing acts to set out or revise the individual amounts of the fees referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article to be applied for that calendar year.
3. Until the establishment of the Union registry, a certification scheme shall establish and duly maintain a certification registry to make publicly accessible in a secure way the information related to the certification process, including the certificates of compliance and updated certificates of compliance, containing, as a minimum, the information set out in Annex III, to enable the tracing of the quantity of units certified in accordance with Article 9.
A certification registry shall use automated systems, including electronic templates, and shall be interoperable with registries of other recognised certification schemes in order to avoid double counting.
The Commission shall adopt implementing acts setting out the structure, format and technical details of the certification registries and of the recording, holding or use of certified units, including as referred to in this paragraph. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 17.
4. Certified units shall be issued by certification registries or, once established, by the Union registry only after the generation of a net carbon removal benefit or net soil emission reduction benefit, based on a valid certificate of compliance resulting from a re-certification audit.
Any certified unit shall not be issued more than once and shall not be used by more than one natural or legal person at any point in time.
Permanent carbon removal units, carbon farming sequestration units, carbon storage in product units and soil emission reduction units shall remain distinct from one another.
5. Carbon farming sequestration units and carbon storage in product units shall expire at the end of the monitoring period for the relevant activity, and be cancelled in the certification registry or, once established, in the Union registry, unless the long-term storage of the removed carbon is proven through continued monitoring, in accordance with the rules set out in the applicable certification methodology.
Recognition of certification schemes
1. Only a certification scheme recognised by the Commission by means of a decision may be used by an operator or a group of operators to demonstrate compliance with this Regulation. Such decision shall be valid for a period of no more than five years and shall be made publicly available in the Union registry.
2. A Member State shall notify to the Commission an application for recognition of a public certification scheme.
The legal representative of a private certification scheme shall notify to the Commission an application for recognition of that private certification scheme.
3. The Commission may, after appropriate consultation with the certification scheme, repeal a decision recognising that scheme pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article where the certification scheme fails to implement the rules set out in the implementing acts referred to in Article 11(5).
Where a Member State or any other interested party raises duly substantiated concerns that a certification scheme does not operate in accordance with the rules set out in the implementing acts referred to in Article 11(5) which constitute the basis for decisions under paragraph 1 of this Article, the Commission shall investigate the matter and take appropriate action, including repealing the relevant decision.
4. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts setting out the structure, format and technical details of the recognition and notification processes referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 17.
Reporting requirements
1. Every year by 30 April, each certification scheme recognised by the Commission that has operated for at least 12 months shall submit to the Commission an annual report about its operations, including a description of any cases of fraud and related remediation measures, which covers the preceding calendar year.
The Commission shall make the reports referred to in the first subparagraph publicly available, in full or, where necessary to preserve the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information, in an aggregated form.
2. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts setting out the structure, format and technical details of the reports referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 17.
