The Budget set out further significant changes to the business energy efficiency tax regime.
In his March 2012 budget, the Chancellor had signalled that the carbon reduction commitment (CRC) scheme would be simplified and warned that if significant administrative savings were not found, the government would bring forward proposals by autumn that year to replace CRC revenues with an alternative environmental tax.
It has taken longer than originally outlined, but George Osborne has now decided to scrap the CRC and recover the lost revenue by raising the climate change levy (CCL). The CRC will be withdrawn at the end of the 2018–19 compliance period, with the increase to the CCL from April 2019.
The government has also said it will consult this summer on a simplified energy and carbon reporting framework, to be introduced by April 2019. We will keep IEMA members informed and engaged in our response. The consultation will propose mandatory annual reporting for the organisations within its scope, with board or senior level sign-off and some public disclosure of data.
The government will seek, as far as possible, to streamline data collection and reporting requirements, for example by limiting the number of times organisations have to measure and report their emissions and by aligning data collection and deadlines. Under the plans, mandatory reporting of GHG emissions by listed companies is retained in order to provide data transparency for investors and establish London as a centre of global green finance.
The government will also explore the integration of existing compliance and reporting requirements of climate change agreements, the EU emissions trading system and the energy savings opportunity scheme (ESOS) in a new framework. This would apply to UK undertakings and their corporate groups that satisfy the qualification criteria for ESOS. Public and third sector organisations that meet the criteria would also have to report.
