The Carbon Accounting Regulations 2020

02 March 2020

Amends: Climate Change Act 2008
Comes into effect: 28th February 2020
Jurisdiction: UK

These Regulations (the ‘2020 Regulations’) ensure the accounting for the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) at stationary installations and domestic aviation covers the first year (2018) of the third carbon budget period. It does this by:

Providing a mechanism to account for credits and debits to the net UK carbon account as a result of the operation of the EU ETS, other than in respect of aviation during 2018; and
Providing a mechanism to account for domestic aviation during 2018 which is included in the EU ETS.

EU ETS (stationary installations)
For the first year of the third budget period, EU Member States did not receive a national cap of emission units. Instead, a notional cap (known as the annual allocation) is created by adding together the volume of EU allowances to UK operators.

The UK notional cap is 152,311,507 carbon units.

Domestic aviation carbon units
Units to be credited or debited from the net UK carbon account must take into account domestic aviation emissions during 2018. The domestic aviation cap (DAC), expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, must be calculated in order to find out which carbon units are to be credited and debited.

Cancelling carbon units credited to the net UK carbon account
The carbon units credited to the net UK carbon account in respect of 2018 will be cancelled during a period between 1st January 2023 and 14th May 2024.

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