Carbon Reduction Commitment: Who's affected?
Your organisation would be included in CRC if it has at least one meter settled on the half-hourly market – and its total half-hourly metered electricity use is greater than 6,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2008. If your organisation, including any parent company and its subsidiaries, spends more than £1,000,000 a year in the UK on electricity, you are likely to be included in the scheme.
Qualification for the scheme is based solely on half hourly electricity usage. However, once the scheme starts, you will have to monitor and report all your energy use emissions from all sources (all electricity, gas and other fuels) except for transport emissions, emissions covered by the EU ETS and emissions covered by Climate Change Agreements. We propose that organisations will be required to monitor and report their total energy use emissions from October 2009.
For the purpose of determining scheme qualification, we are proposing to define half-hourly metering as:
- Half-Hourly Meters (Code of Practice 5 meters) used for billing purposes
- All remotely read Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters that produce half-hourly data (irrespective of whether the half-hourly metered electricity is settled on the half-hourly or non-half hourly market)
- Half hourly light meters
- Pseudo half-hourly meters (commonly used to measuring electricity consumption of street furniture – e.g. street lights, traffic lights, etc.)
Your supplier should be able to tell you if you have any half hourly meters.
The CRC will target UK emission of the highest parent organisation. If you are the highest parent organisation you will need to consider the electricity use of your subsidiaries to assess whether you are included in the scheme. You will also be responsible for reporting on your total energy use emissions, including those of your subsidiaries. If you are a subsidiary of an organisation, you will need to pass on information about your energy use to your parent for them to report to Government at the end of each year.
To minimise administrative overlap, the CRC will cover emissions outside of Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) and outside the direct emissions already covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). In addition, subsidiary organisations with more than 25% of their energy use emissions covered by a CCA will be completely exempt from the scheme. Only the specific subsidiary with the CCA will be exempt, rather than the entire CRC organisation.
Further information: common questions and answers
- Are hospitals and other NHS organisations included in CRC?
- How will the CRC work in the Devolved Administrations (DAs)?
- The EU ETS and Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) already exist - how has Government sought to avoid overlap?
Are schools included in CRC?
Yes, state-funded schools in Great Britain will be included in the scheme but they would not participate in CRC individually. Emissions from schools will be included under the umbrella of their Local Authority. Qualifying Local Authorities would then participate on the behalf of schools as well as for the LA’s own estate. More information is available in our schools policy summary paper.
Are hospitals and other NHS organisations included in CRC?
We will consult on the details of CRC as it applies to the NHS later this year. We recommend that NHS bodies register to be sent information updates so that they can be kept informed of policy developments.
How will the CRC work in the Devolved Administrations (DAs)?
The CRC will be a UK-wide scheme which seeks to secure cost-effective emissions reductions across the whole of the UK. The UK Government is working closely with the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government, and Department of Environment Northern Ireland on this policy. Following the elections in the Devolved Administrations earlier this year, new Ministers are considering their strategic responses to climate change. All of them support the CRC and will work with the UK Government to ensure it is implemented in such a way that it represents an appropriate fit with their climate change strategies.
We have worked closely with DA officials throughout the development the CRC proposal and DA ministers have demonstrated their commitment by jointly signing-off the Government Response to the CRC consultation document.
The EU ETS and Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) already exist - how has Government sought to avoid overlap?
The CRC has been designed to focus on electricity use and direct energy use emissions outside the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and Climate Change Agreements, to avoid administrative overlap in terms of the emissions targeted by CRC and other schemes. Furthermore, subsidiaries with over 25% of their emissions in CCAs will be completely exempt from CRC. EU ETS and CCAs are primarily targeted at the heaviest direct emitters such as power generators and heavy industry. The focus of the CRC is primarily on large non-energy intensive organisations and analysis suggests that only around 5% of CRC organisations will have some direct emissions covered by the EU ETS. For those organisations, CRC will target electricity use and direct energy use emissions outside EU ETS.
Page last modified: 1 December 2008
Page published: 18 August 2008