The Scottish Government is working alongside the UK Government and other Devolved Administrations to introduce the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), a UK-wide emissions trading scheme planned to start in 2010. The CRC will reduce emissions from large, non-energy-intensive commercial and public sector organisations by at least 4 MtCO2 a year by 2020. Although addressing climate change is a devolved matter, Scottish Ministers and their UK counterparts have agreed that to maximise the effectiveness of the CRC, it should be implemented on a UK-wide basis.
All organisations whose annual electricity use from half-hourly meters exceeds 6000 MWh, and whose CO2 emissions are not already covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme or Climate Change Agreements, will be included. This will target organisations in the large, non-energy-intensive sector such as supermarkets, hotel chains, banks, government departments and local authorities. Although energy use in these organisations typically accounts for only 1-2% of their total operating costs, the sector as a whole is responsible for approximately 10% of the UK's total CO2 emissions.
Visit the central CRC information pages for more on the scheme.
Important - Will your organisation be included? Action to be taken!
The CRC information pages give full details of the threshold for inclusion. If you think your organisation may exceed the threshold, please register here. This will ensure you are kept up to date with the latest CRC news.
Find out how the CRC works - here.
Latest news
July 16 2008 - Schools join fight against climate change: Carbon emissions from Scottish schools are to be included in a pioneering carbon trading scheme from April 2010.
July 22 2008 - Ministers wrote to around 13,000 organisations to inform them that they might be included in CRC and to invite them to register.