Carbon Reduction Commitment

In 2008 the Department for energy and climate change announced that the UK would be launching its own carbon trading initiative called the Carbon Reducton Commitment.

The aim, is to encourage UK businesses to reduce year on year their carbon emissions through an incentives and penalties scheme using carbon trading as a way of buying and selling the outcomes of energy efficiency or energy waste.

Organisations that consume more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity will automatically qualify for the scheme and will have a emission cap set in time for a soft trading, i.e. without initial penalties, to start in 2010. The scheme will use 2008/9 energy consumption data as the baseline for buying credits on the CRC market or European EUETS market and then to introduce a 2.5% year on year reduction in those emissions. Any organisation that exceeds that cap will have to buy carbon credits, if they fall below that cap they will be able to sell carbon credits in exchange for cash.

It is an evolving scheme that requires a degree of expertise and understanding of the financial risk to businesses in the UK, it is also a legal risk due to the penalties that apply for non compliance and of course the publicity risks for failing to meet or fall below emission caps.

Green 2020 can help provide that guidance and expertise to help UK businesses mitigate that risk and assist through our energy management practice a year on year reduction in emissions.

Call us to find out more about the CRC and see how we can help you navigate through the scheme and get best value out of it. Call us on 0207 193 7341.

Download the government guide on the CRC DOWNLOAD