Energy White Paper slims down domestic emissions trading scheme

Last year’s energy review promised a cap-and-trade scheme covering large, non-energy intensive organisations such as hotels, supermarkets and local authorities. The original electricity consumption threshold for inclusion in the scheme, known as the energy performance commitment, was set at 3,000MWhr per year and would have captured around 5,000 organisations.

The White Paper renames the scheme the Carbon Reduction Commitment and suggests raising the threshold to 6,000 MWhr/year – which will exclude thousands of organisations. A regulatory impact assessment of last year’s proposals estimated that just 1,250 organisations would be covered under a 10,000MWhr/yr threshold.