Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2017:975
Date: 2017-12-14
Language of the case: German
Subject matter: Environment;Pollution
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling;Reference for a preliminary ruling - decision unnecessary
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 28 February 2018 1. Judicial proceedings — Request that the oral procedure be reopened — Request to submit observations on the points of law raised by the Opinion of the Advocate General — Conditions for reopening (Art. 252, second para., TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 23; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 83) 2. Environment — Atmospheric pollution — Directive 2003/87 — Scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading — Concept of emissions — ‘Indirect’ emissions associated with the production of heat that is imported from a third-party installation — Not included (European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/87, as amended by Directive 2009/29, Art. 3(b)) 3. Environment — Atmospheric pollution — Directive 2003/87 — Scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading — Scope — Production of polymers by means of heat supplied by a third-party installation — Activity which does not generate direct emissions of carbon dioxide — Not included (European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/87, as amended by Directive 2009/29, Art. 2(1)) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 32-35) 2. Trinseo and the Commission submit, however, that emissions arising from the production of polymers should include ‘indirect’ emissions from the production of heat by the third-party installation supplying that heat for the purposes of polymerisation. That interpretation cannot be accepted, however. As is already apparent from paragraphs 47 and 48 of this judgment, the ‘emissions’ to which Directive 2003/87 applies are, according to the very wording of Article 3(b) of that directive, solely those which give rise to the release of greenhouse gases from sources in an installation. It follows that CO2 emissions arising from the activity of producing heat justify solely the inclusion in that scheme of installations that are the source of those emissions, such as, in the present case, the third-party installation supplying heat to the installation at issue in the main proceedings. (see paras 53-55, 58) 3. Article 2(1) of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC, as amended by Directive 2009/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009, must be interpreted as meaning that an installation for the production of polymers, in particular the polymer polycarbonate, such as the installation at issue in the main proceedings, which obtains the heat needed for that production from a third-party installation, does not fall within the scope of the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme established by that directive, since it does not generate direct CO2 emissions. (see para. 74, operative part)