Reino Unido : April 16, 2010
The Carbon Reduction Commitment (“CRC”) was established under the UK Climate Change Act of 2008 as one of the measures introduced to assist the UK in reaching its undertaking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent (compared to 1990 levels) by 2020. The objective of the CRC is to encourage medium sized organisations (those using more than 6,000 MWh of electricity through half-hourly settled meters) to reduce carbon emissions through introducing energy efficiency measures.
On 1st April 2010 the UK Environment Agency, who administer the CRC scheme, opened for the first time the online communication and reporting registry. This follows the release of over 200 pages of guidelines in addition to the 350 pages of previous documentation, numerous case studies and webinars all aimed at “helping” those ensnared with their understanding of the scheme. Although the scheme has been looming on the horizon for some time, it has largely failed to reach its key audience with few organisations realising the significance of failure to register (fines!) or the resources required for a full participant to comply with the legislation.
With sudden realisation that something may have to be done, organisations are now rushing to find an answer to the problems they are confronted with under this legislation. These are significant issues, as it is the highest UK-based company in a common ownership chain that has the responsibility for reporting. As a consequence, compliance with the CRC requires that organisational groups, which may have little integration, act in unison, communicate effectively, identify, source, and organise the required utility data and report as a single UK entity by a specific deadline.
To add to the problems, the calling of the UK election for May 6th has introduced election “purdah” into the Civil Service so that no new requests for advice (other than factual information that is incomplete) will be considered until a new Government is in place.
If this all appears to be a logistical nightmare, an additional layer of complexity is added by the requirement to purchase carbon allowances in advance to cover emissions for the year commencing April 2011. The financial and accounting implications of centralised carbon allowance purchasing are now becoming realised with Financial Controllers all over the country having to create new accounting paths to accommodate the requirement.
Fortunately for our clients, NUS can lift much of the burden of CRC reporting. We can act as a central facilitating agency to coordinate collection and consolidation of data through the NUSdirect web portal. The benefits are clear – better information means better avenues for efficiency and cost reduction adding value to both the data and the organisation generating it.
The future? Will the CRC scheme prove worthwhile? For those who act correctly the answer is yes; with savings in energy, emissions and costs at the end of the CRC rainbow. Those organisations that fail to come to grips with the scheme will undoubtedly rue their inactivity and pay the cost.