The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) is a new emissions trading scheme for large non-energy intensive commercial and public sector organisations. The scheme will place an emissions cap on up to 5,000 large business and public sector organisations responsible for around 14 million tonnes of carbon (MtC) emissions each year.

To determine eligibility, organisations with half hourly meters will be contacted in July 2009 by the Environment Agency requesting information on electricity consumption together with a complete list of half hourly meters.

Qualification for CRC is to be based on an organisations total half hourly electricity usage throughout 2008. However, once the scheme starts an organisation will have to monitor and report on 90% of its energy emissions from all sources except for transport emissions, emissions covered by the EU ETS and emissions covered by Climate Change Levy Agreements.

An organisation would be included in CRC if its total half-hourly metered electricity use is greater than 6,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) during 2008. As a benchmark, if an organisation including any parent company and its subsidiaries spends more than £500,000 a year in the UK on electricity then they are likely to be included.

Responsibility for the CRC will lie with highest UK parent organisation. It is the parent organisations overall responsibility to investigate and declare which of their subsidiary organisations qualify for the CRC. A subsidiary of an organisation will need to pass on energy use information to their parent for them to report on at the end of each year.

A participant will have to detail carbon emissions and submit adequate allowances by the end of July via an online registry prior to receiving a recycling performance payment at the end of October. The recycling payment will include a bonus or penalty based of their position within the performance league table.

STC’s carbon division has developed a unique fully managed solution to allow organisations to comply with CRC. From initial consultation, obtaining early action credits through to managing recycling payments, STC can offer expert compliance advice which encompasses: