The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) and National Emissions Inventory Regulations 2005

Amendment of the 2005 Regulations U.K.

4.  The 2005 Regulations are amended as follows—

(a) in regulation 2(1)—

(i) there shall be inserted at the appropriate place in alphabetical order—

““CER” means certified emission reduction and has the meaning given to it in Article 3 of the Directive;”;

““ERU” means an emission reduction unit and has the meaning given to it in Article 3 of the Directive;”;

““project activity” has the meaning given to it in Article 3 of the Directive;”;

(ii) in the definition of “national allocation plan”, for “Articles 9 and 10” there shall be substituted “Articles 9, 10 and 30(3)”.

(b) in regulation 26, after paragraph (16) the following paragraph shall be inserted—

“(17) An operator holding account and a person holding account shall be capable of holding all ERUs and CERs.”;

(c) after regulation 27 the following regulation shall be inserted—

“Use of CERs and ERUs

27A.— (1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (5), an operator of an installation may, in accordance with Article 53 of the Registries Regulation, use any combination of—

(a) CERs from project activities;

(b) ERUs from project activities; and

(c) allowances,

to comply with a requirement to surrender allowances imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3), 16(7)(b), 17(5)(b) or 40(2)(a).

(2) An operator may not use ERUs to comply with an obligation relating to emissions in the first scheme phase.

(3) An operator may not use CERs or ERUs generated from—

(a) nuclear facilities; or

(b) land use, land use change and forestry activities.

(4) In relation to the second and subsequent scheme phases, an operator may only use CERs and ERUs up to the limit provided for in the approved national allocation plan for that scheme phase.

(5) In relation to a scheme phase in which a partial transfer of a greenhouse gas emissions permit is effected in accordance with regulation 15(7)(a), an operator may not use CERs or ERUs where the obligation relates to the transferred unit.”;

(d) In regulation 35—

(i) in paragraph (1), for the words “For the purposes of the discharge of its functions under these Regulations,” there shall be substituted “For the purposes in paragraph (4), ”;

(ii) in paragraph (2), for the words “For the purpose of the discharge of its functions under these Regulations,” there shall be substituted “For the purposes in paragraph (4),”; and

(iii) after paragraph (3), the following paragraphs shall be added—

“(4) The purposes referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) are—

(a) the purpose of the discharge of the relevant body’s functions under these regulations; and

(b) the purpose of applying, seeking to apply, or assessing whether to seek to apply emission allowance trading to activities, installations and greenhouse gases which are not listed in Schedule 1 in accordance with Article 24 of the Directive.

(5) Where the Secretary of State is entitled to serve a notice on a person under paragraph (2)—

(a) in relation to England and Wales, the regulator; and,

(b) in relation to Scotland and Northern Ireland, the regulator or the Environment Agency,

may serve that notice for the purpose of assisting the Secretary of State.”.