Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009

20 Carbon units and carbon accounting

(1) The Scottish Ministers may, by regulations, make provision for a scheme—

(a) for registering or otherwise keeping track of carbon units;

(b) for establishing and maintaining accounts in which carbon units may be held, and between which they may be transferred, by the Scottish Ministers.

(2) Regulations under subsection (1) may, in particular, provide for an existing scheme to be adapted for these purposes.

(3) The regulations may also include provision—

(a) designating a person or body to administer the scheme;

(b) establishing a person or body for that purpose and making such provision in relation to the appointment of members, staffing, expenditure, procedure and otherwise of the person or body as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate;

(c) conferring power on the Scottish Ministers to give guidance or directions to the person or body administering the scheme;

(d) conferring power on the Scottish Ministers to delegate the performance of any of the functions conferred on them by the regulations;

(e) requiring the payment by persons using the scheme of such charges as are reasonably required to cover the reasonable costs incurred in operating the scheme.

(4) In this Act, a “carbon unit” means a unit of a kind specified in regulations made under subsection (1) and which represents—

(a) a reduction in an amount of greenhouse gas emissions;

(b) the removal of an amount of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere;

(c) an amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed under a scheme or arrangement imposing a limit on such emissions.