The BEHG applies to all CO2 emissions resulting from the combustion of heating and motor fuels such as coke & coal that are placed on the market. According to the Energy Tax Act, all fuels are deemed to be placed on the market when the tax liability arises.

The main reportable fuels subject to energy tax include:

In order to assess the emission intensity of fuels, the legislator has set so-called standard emission values for many of these fuels. A more differentiated consideration of emission factors is only permitted for fuels for which no standard emission value is specified.

Coal as a fuel is a special case in that coal is subject to the NEHS even if it is exempt from energy tax under § 37 para. 2 nos. 3 and 4 EnergierStG. If such a tax exemption exists, the holder of the permit entitling to tax-exempt use is obliged to participate in the nEHS according to § 3 No. 3b BEHG.

While fuels with only biogenic components have already been subject to reporting requirements in the nEHS since 2021, this does not apply to fuels consisting exclusively of biomass until 2023. The assessment of biogenic fuels or biogenic fuel components is carried out with an emission factor of zero, provided that the bioenergy share demonstrably fulfils the necessary sustainability requirements of the Biomass Electricity Sustainability Ordinance or the Biofuels Sustainability Ordinance. Applying an emission factor of zero means that no certificates have to be acquired for the biogenic fuel component and consequently no increase in costs is incurred by the end consumer.