From 2028 Portugal's Fuel Suppliers Must Buy Carbon Permits for Every Litre Burned in Homes and Cars, and Missing the Deadline Costs 100 Euros a Tonne

A decree-law published in Thursday's Diário da República builds the machinery for the second European emissions trading system, the one that reaches the fuel burned in Portuguese homes, offices and cars. Decreto-Lei n.º 182/2026 partially transposes Directive (EU) 2023/959 and sets up what the Portuguese text calls CELE 2, the counterpart to the CELE that has covered fixed industrial installations since 2005, aviation since 2012 and shipping since 2024.

The design turns on a deliberate shift of who is liable. In the industrial system the obligation sits with the operator that emits. In CELE 2 it moves upstream to whoever releases the fuel for consumption, a group the decree calls entidades regulamentadas, regulated entities. That aligns the scheme with the excise duty regime and the Energy Taxation Directive, and it means the households and drivers whose combustion is being counted never touch a permit. They meet the cost, if at all, in the pump price and the gas bill.

Report From 2025, Surrender From 2028, Penalties From 2029

Regulated entities must hold a greenhouse gas emissions title and report emissions from 2025. The obligation to surrender allowances matching verified emissions only begins in 2028. That is a year later than the CELE directive originally set, a delay that follows the revision of the European Climate Law by Regulation (EU) 2026/667, which set the Union's 2040 interim climate target. Reporting closes on 30 April each year and surrender on 31 May, both timed a month after the industrial deadlines so that the same tonne of carbon is not counted in both systems.

From 2029, a regulated entity that fails to surrender by 31 May pays 100 euros for every tonne of CO2 equivalent left uncovered, a figure the decree indexes to the European consumer price index. Paying the penalty does not cancel the obligation: the missing allowances still have to be handed over the following year, and the Agência para o Clima publishes the names of the entities that failed. Contraordenação proceedings sit with IGAMAOT, which instructs the cases and applies the fines under the environmental framework law, Lei n.º 50/2006.

There is a transitional window that matters immediately. Companies carrying on the activity described in Annex I have 30 days from the decree's entry into force to apply for their emissions title. Those that do may use a simplified monitoring methodology for the stretch between 1 January 2025 and the date the decree takes effect.

What Is Actually Covered

Annex I defines the perimeter through the categories used in national greenhouse gas inventories: road transport, excluding agricultural vehicles on paved roads; the commercial and institutional category; the residential category; combined heat and power and heat plants supplying those categories, directly or through district heating; and, under other sectors, energy industries and manufacturing and construction not already inside the industrial CELE. Fuels with a zero emission factor are out, as are hazardous and municipal waste burned as fuel, and so is anything already captured by the fixed installations regime.

The decree names the Agência para o Clima as national competent authority and as administrator of the Portuguese registry, and it gives the tax authority the job of identifying which companies qualify as regulated entities and passing that information across under a protocol between the two. CELE 2 allowances are auctioned separately from those for fixed installations, aviation and shipping, and the system carries a market stability mechanism intended to hold the carbon price steadier.

On the household side, the decree points to the Social Climate Fund created by Regulation (EU) 2023/955 as the instrument meant to cushion vulnerable households and transport users. It applies in the Azores and Madeira subject to regional adaptation by regional legislative decree, and fines applied by the regions are regional revenue. It lands in a year when Portuguese emissions rose 1.6 percent while the EU's fell.