Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) are part of a package of measures designed to tackle wider issues relating to climate change.
The package includes the Climate Change Levy (CCL), the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC). For more details please see the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) web pages:
What are Climate Change Agreements?
CCAs are currently managed by DECC on a UK-wide basis. They have a two-tier structure, involving government agreements with 54 sector associations and 4,500 individual target units (sites or groups of facilities) in these sectors. The agreements are voluntary. They give industries in the UK, who use a lot of energy, a discount on the CCL administered by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), in return for achieving their negotiated targets.
The CCL applies to the industrial and commercial energy supply of consumers in the following sectors:
- Industry
- Commerce
- Agriculture
- Public and service sectors.
DECC has decided to transfer administration of the next phase of operation of the CCAs to the Environment Agency, starting in 2013. This is because the role is more suited to an operational agency than a government department and there are synergies with the other schemes that we administer, such as CRC and EU ETS.
DECC will be responsible for the delivery of the consultation, legislation and other development requirements for the new CCA scheme. Once the scheme is underway, DECC will continue to be responsible for overall target setting and other policy areas.
All enquiries on the development of the new CCA scheme should be addressed to:
DECC Industrial Energy Efficiency
Department of Energy and Climate Change
Area 1A
3 Whitehall Place
London
SW1A 2HH
Tel: 0300 068 5306/530
Who can provide support in relation to CCAs?
At present, the first line of support for most organisations covered by CCAs will be their sector associations, or DECC, using the contact details on this web page. DECC will continue to lead on the negotiation of energy efficiency targets to be included in the sector-level umbrella agreements.
The Environment Agency will build up support capabilities as we work towards taking on the role of CCA administration. It is expected there will continue to be consultancy support for the new scheme, as there is for the present scheme under DECC’s administration. The CCA consultants will support key processes for sectors and participant organisations including:
- Target setting
- Eligibility checking
- Variations to agreements
- Reconciliation, assessing performance against targets.
As administrator for the new scheme, the Environment Agency will create a range of supporting information and processes, and will develop and operate an electronic register. This will hold accounts for sector associations and target units, containing information currently held in paper form by DECC. Participants will be able to access information relating to their agreements.
CCA Customer Operations Liaison Group
We will actively engage with key organisations involved in the CCA scheme to understand their experiences and discuss how we can make improvements to the way the scheme is administered.
To help with this we will set up a CCA Operations Liaison Group. You can find more information about the group, including a list of members and meeting agendas, on this web page:
Further guidance on CCA
