Environmental Impact Guidance
Impacts on climate change
"Will the policy option lead to a change in the emission of greenhouse gases?"
The Government's Energy White Paper, published in February 2003 sets out a requirement to make a carbon impact assessment an integral part of assessing environmental impacts.
Greenhouse gases are gases that contribute towards climate change . The UK has entered into binding commitments and adopted national goals to substantially reduce emissions of these gases. The main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), but other gases also play a significant part in global warming - these are methane (CH 4 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), perfluorocarbon (PFC), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF 6 ).
This guidance is designed to help you identify whether your policy options will have a significant impact on emissions of greenhouse gases, and if so, how you can present these impacts in your policy's RIA. Simply follow the steps given below - click on the links to go to the relevant part of the guidance. Consult your departmental economists at this stage as they will be able to provide guidance on policy appraisal
Step 1 : Identify whether your policy has an effect on an activity or sector which could have a significant impact (either an increase or a decrease) in terms of emissions of greenhouse gases. This page sets out which sectors and activities are the main contributors of greenhouse gases.
If there isn't a significant impact.
If it appears that your policy does not affect an activity or sector that may have a significant impact on emissions of greenhouse gases, you do not need to conduct a full carbon impact assessment. You will need to state in your RIA that you do not consider there will be significant effects on emissions of greenhouse gases as a result of your policy.
If there is a significant impact.
If, however, your policy has a significant potential impact on one of the relevant activities or sectors, you will need to undertake a full carbon impact assessment. You will therefore need to continue with the following steps:
Step 2 :Estimate the change in emissions of greenhouse gases as a result of your policy options.
Step 3 : Express all changes in emissions in terms of their carbon equivalent.
Step 4 : Assign a monetary value to the change in emissions (see guidance).
Step 5 : Include the monetised costs and/or benefits within the RIA. Where it has not been possible to report the impact of your policy in terms of tonnes of emissions and therefore to assign this impact a monetary value, a brief qualitative discussion of the carbon impacts should be included instead.Page last modified: 30 April 2007
Page Published: 16 November 2004