BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Thursday that it was keeping its April 30 deadline for companies to surrender allowances to cover their 2019 emissions under the bloc's carbon market, despite calls from some industry groups to extend it.
Under the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), industry, utilities and airlines running flights inside Europe must report their ETS emissions for the previous calendar year by March 31, and surrender enough carbon permits to cover them by April 30.
The Commission said it recognised that the coronavirus crisis might make it difficult for some operators to submit verified emissions reports by the end of March, but said that authorities could make estimates of these emissions during April.
"The Commission underlines the importance of the timely surrender of allowances by the mandatory deadline of 30 April 2020," it said.