What are the timelines for the Carbon Reduction Commitment?

The Carbon Reduction Commitment has been renamed the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. It is a mandatory energy saving scheme that begins at the start of April.

However, the impact it will have on retailers’ businesses in the short term will depend on their size. About 20,000 organisations are going to be required to participate in some way. For 5,000 of the largest this will mean recording and monitoring their CO2 emissions, and purchasing allowances equivalent to their emissions each year. For the rest it will mean making a disclosure about their electricity usage once every few years.

The three-year introductory phase of the scheme begins in April. But the qualification period retailers should use for determining whether or not they need to participate in the scheme was the 2008 calendar year.

Between April and September this year companies must register as a participant with the administrator or submit their information disclosure.

Slightly confusingly, the ‘footprint year’ for the introductory phase of the scheme is running concurrently with the registration phase between April 2010 and March 2011.

In this time, the 5,000 organisations must monitor their total emissions from energy supplies and determine what emissions should be included in the CRC. This data will be reported to the administrator in a footprint report.

In the subsequent years within the three-year period those that are required to will be able to purchase allowances at a cost of £12 per ton of CO2 produced.