The Climate Change Agreements (Administration and Eligible Facilities) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 will amend the Climate Change Agreements (Administration) Regulations 2012 and Climate Change Agreements (Eligible Facilities) Regulations 2012 on 31 December 2023.
This legislation will apply across the UK.
What will change?
Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) are available to certain energy intensive sectors. Holders of CCAs receive a significant reduction in the on the rates of climate change levy in return for mandatory emissions or energy use targets.
The amending regulations will extend the CCA scheme until 31 March 2027.
Additional target period
An additional target period will apply (target period 6), which will cover the 2024 calendar year. Any previous surplus achieved by overperforming in target periods 1 through 4 will not be taken into account when determining the fee for target period 5 or target period 6.
A new power will enable the scheme administrator to request information by 1 May following the completion of the previous target period.
Increased buy-out rate and penalties
CCA holders that do not meet the targets set are required to pay ‘buy-out’ fees per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) over the target. The buy-out fee will increase to £25 for target period 6. The fee is set at target period
The amending regulations will also increase financial penalties that may be applied against CCA holders breaching their obligations. The administrator may also decide to apply a lower rate of fee.
Autumn Statement
On 23 November 2023, the Autumn Statement confirmed that a new, six-year climate change agreement scheme would run between 1 July 2027 and 31 March 2033. It was announced that the scheme will open to further sectors and more regular reporting will be required. Targets will be applied between 2025 and 2030.
New publications this month:
HM TREASURY
Autumn Statement 2023
The Autumn Statement took place on 23 November 2023. Notable environmental policy changes include:
DEPARTMENT FOR ENERGY SECURITY AND NET ZERO, DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS)
Participating in the UK ETS
Further information has been provided on UK ETS installation activity level changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (DEFRA)
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Guidance
BNG requirements will apply to non-exempt developments requiring planning permission under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 from January 2024. The BNG will apply to small sites from April 2024. The BNG will require developers to achieve a mandatory 10% improvement to biodiversity between the pre- and post-development stages.
A range of guidance has been published or updated regarding how the BNG rules will operate and how to comply:
Restoring our natural environment
This plan defines actions the government intends to use to steward natural heritage.
Temperate rainforest strategy
This plan sets out actions to recover temperate rainforests in England.
Woodland Access Implementation Plan
Planned actions are set out to improve the connection of people with trees and woodland.
DEPARTMENT FOR LEVELLING UP, HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES
Draft biodiversity net gain planning practice guidance
This document provides practice guidance for the planning regime with respect to BNG. A final version of this guidance is expected to be issued in December 2023.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, SCOTTISH ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY (SEPA), NATURAL RESOURCES WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (NIEA)
Updated H1 Risk Assessment Tool
The Environment Agency’s H1 risk assessment tool has been updated. This is now in the form of a spreadsheet.
The H1 tool is used to assess the significance of emissions to various media from sites requiring an environmental permit. The tool’s calculations are ‘worst case’ estimates that are often larger than woulf be obtained through calculations using detailed modelling.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, DEFRA
Air emissions risk assessment for your environmental permit
Updated Environmental Assessment Levels (EALs) have been published for acrylamide, butadiene, cadmium, chromium III, copper, ethylene oxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, mercury, methyl chloride (chloromethane), methylene chloride (dichloromethane), nickel and selenium emissions to air.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Comply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)
This guidance now reflects the revised reporting requirements under Phase 3 of ESOS.
Waste exemption: NWFD 4 temporary storage at a collection point
Non-Waste Framework Directive (NWFD) exemptions allow the specified activities to be undertaken without requiring a waste management exemption or permit to be arranged.
Guidance on NWFD 4 now states that where more than one type of waste is stored, the different streams must not be mixed.
Waste: export and import
This guidance now reflects requirements on financial guarantee providers in connection with transfrontier waste shipments from 1 March 2024. Further changes have been made to improve accuracy.
MCERTS: performance standard for laboratories undertaking chemical testing of soil
Although the content has not changed significantly, this document has been revised to make it clearer and more accessible.
Prepare your business for flooding
This guidance has been updated.
Regulatory Position Statements (RPSs):
The following RPSs were published or updated in November 2023:
FORESTRY COMMISSION
A summary guide to managing tree pests and diseases
Guidance is provided to landowners and managers on the control of tree pests and diseases.
Ecological survey and assessment for woodland creation in England
This guidance has been updated and renamed reflecting information gathered by research.
SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
Scottish Government Draft Planning Guidance: Biodiversity
This draft guidance document states expectations on how the objective of improving biodiversity under National Planning Framework 4 will be delivered
Energy Performance Certificates: guide
Guidance is provided on the use of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs).
WELSH GOVERNMENT
Leisure centre decarbonisation: guidance note
Guidance is prohibited on how to reduce energy consumption in leisure centres.
Fine for tyre dealer who failed to submit waste transfer notes
A tyre dealer and repairer has been prosecuted for failing to submit waste transfer notes when asked to move 844 tyres from his Derbyshire base.
The Environment Agency visited the premises of ECO Tyres in Swadlincote on 5 September 2023 after the regulator received information that a large number of tyres were being stored around the premises. The officers returned to the site on 11 October 2023 and found that the tyres had been removed. However, the Director of the company failed to produce the respective waste transfer note(s).
Further attempts to contact the Director via phone and email were ignored. The Director was issued a fixed penalty notice for failing to produce waste transfer notes, which he then failed to pay.
Every person who produces, carries, keeps or disposes of waste is subject to the duty of care, which requires that waste is managed appropriately, including ensuring transfers of waste are recorded.
Breaches
The Director was fined for breaching Section 34(5) and Section 34(6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Regulation 35 of the Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2011:
Penalty
The Director was fined £518, with costs of £600 and a victim surcharge of £207.
Yorkshire Water enters a record £1million civil sanction following water pollution
Yorkshire Water has had an enforcement undertaking for £1million accepted after it was found to have polluted the Hookstone Beck in Harrogate.
Yorkshire Water’s Hookstone Road combined sewer overflow has an environmental permit which allows a discharge into the beck when the storm sewage facility is full due to rainfall or snow melt.
On 31 August 2016, the Environment Agency received a report of pollution to the Hookstone Beck. This was traced to the overflow at Hookstone Road, which had blocked. Yorkshire Water was not alerted of this issue due to faulty telemetry equipment.
An Environment Agency investigation found that almost 1,500 fish had been killed and water quality was affected for 2.5km downstream. A series of further blockages and discharges took place in the following months.
A detailed Environment Agency investigation followed to measure the impact of ammonia releases. An assessment of Event Duration Monitoring data confirmed that Yorkshire Water was in breach of its environmental permit.
Enforcement Undertaking
In response to the Environment Agency’s investigation, Yorkshire Water submitted an Enforcement Undertaking to the Environment Agency. This proposed a charitable donation totalling £1m, which is the largest ever accepted by the regulator.
Enforcement Undertakings are a voluntary offer made by companies or individuals to make amends for their offending, and usually includes a payment to an environmental charity to carry out environmental improvements in the local area.
£500,000 of the Enforcement Undertaking went to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, while the other £500,000 went to the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.
As part of the Enforcement Undertaking requirements, Yorkshire Water has carried out a significant £1.85m improvement and rebuilding project to the overflow and surrounding sewer network to bring it back into compliance with the environmental permit.
Two brothers jailed and banned from acting as company directors following waste offences
The operators of a quarry near Stevenage have been given prison sentences after they were found to have stored and buried large quantities of waste illegally.
The Codicote Quarry Ltd site held a permit to treat and store a limited amount of soil waste. An Environment Agency investigation found that the quarry went beyond what was authorised by the permit.
The suspect material was predominately household, commercial and industrial waste, but also electrical items, car parts, furniture, food packaging, wood and metal. In all, at least 200,000 cubic metres of banned and potentially harmful material.
The Environment Agency first questioned the men operating the quarry in 2017 about the amount of waste the quarry was holding. Supported by Hertfordshire County Council, the Environment Agency undertook a large number of on-site checks to get the operators to comply with the law. However, the waste piles grew and began to decompose.
As well as storing piles of waste, the operators were also burying it under a layer of chalk. By November 2017, with the quarry holding so much illegal and contaminated waste, the Environment Agency suspended the site’s permit.
Environment Agency Officers later issued two notices aiming at getting the waste removed, but these were not complied with and none of it was taken away as required by the Environment Agency.
The illegal disposals means the site will need monitoring for many years to minimise the risk of polluting the nearby River Mimram and groundwater sources as the quarry was not set up for landfill.
The men were prosecuted for breaches of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Penalties
One of the men was handed a 17-month prison term, while the other, was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for 2 years.
The court also banned the men from acting as company directors for 8 years.
Any award of costs or a confiscation order against the men and Codicote Quarry Ltd will be considered at a later date.
