PART 1 continued
(1) Before laying before Parliament a draft of a statutory instrument containing an order under section 21 (alteration of carbon budgets), the Secretary of State must—
(a) obtain, and take into account, the advice of the Committee on Climate Change, and
(b) take into account any representations made by the other national authorities.
(2) The Committee must, at the time it gives its advice to the Secretary of State, send a copy to the other national authorities.
(3) As soon as is reasonably practicable after giving its advice to the Secretary of State, the Committee must publish that advice in such manner as it considers appropriate.
(4) The Secretary of State may proceed to lay such a draft statutory instrument before Parliament without having received a national authority’s representations if the authority does not provide them before the end of the relevant period.
(5) The relevant period is—
(a) if the budgetary period to which the order relates has begun, one month beginning with the date the Committee’s advice was sent to the authority, or
(b) otherwise, three months beginning with that date.
(6) At the same time as laying such a draft statutory instrument before Parliament, the Secretary of State must publish a statement setting out whether and how the order takes account of any representations made by the other national authorities.
(7) If the order makes provision different from that recommended by the Committee, the Secretary of State must also publish a statement setting out the reasons for that decision.
(8) A statement under this section may be published in such manner as the Secretary of State thinks fit.
(1) The Secretary of State may by order amend section 4(1)(a) so as to alter—
(a) the length of the budgetary periods, or
(b) the dates in the calendar year on which the budgetary periods begin and end.
(2) This power may only be exercised if it appears to the Secretary of State necessary to do so in order to keep the budgetary periods under this Part in line with similar periods under any agreement at European or international level to which the United Kingdom is a party.
(3) The power may not be exercised in such a way that any period falls outside a budgetary period.
(4) An order may make such consequential amendments of the provisions of this Act as appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary or expedient.
(5) Before making an order under this section the Secretary of State must consult the other national authorities.
(6) An order under this section is subject to affirmative resolution procedure.
(1) In this Part a “targeted greenhouse gas” means—
(a) carbon dioxide,
(b) methane,
(c) nitrous oxide,
(d) hydrofluorocarbons,
(e) perfluorocarbons,
(f) sulphur hexafluoride, and
(g) any other greenhouse gas designated as a targeted greenhouse gas by order made by the Secretary of State.
(2) The order may make such consequential amendments of the provisions of this Act as appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary or expedient.
(3) Before making an order under this section, the Secretary of State must—
(a) consult the other national authorities, and
(b) obtain, and take into account, the advice of the Committee on Climate Change.
(4) As soon as is reasonably practicable after giving its advice to the Secretary of State, the Committee must publish that advice in such manner as it considers appropriate.
(5) If the order makes provision different from that recommended by the Committee, the Secretary of State must publish a statement setting out the reasons for that decision.
(6) The statement may be published in such manner as the Secretary of State thinks fit.
(7) An order under this section is subject to affirmative resolution procedure.
(1) The base years for the purposes of this Act for targeted greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide are—
| Gas | Base year |
|---|---|
| methane | 1990 |
| nitrous oxide | 1990 |
| hydrofluorocarbons | 1995 |
| perfluorocarbons | 1995 |
| sulphur hexafluoride | 1995 |
(2) The Secretary of State may make provision by order amending the table in subsection (1) so as to—
(a) specify the base year for a gas designated as a targeted greenhouse gas by order under section 24(1), or
(b) specify a different base year from that for the time being specified in relation to any targeted greenhouse gas other than carbon dioxide.
(3) An order may—
(a) designate a particular base year, or
(b) designate a number of base years and provide that the average amount of net UK emissions of a gas for those years is to be treated for the purposes of this Act as the amount of net UK emissions for the base year.
(4) The power in subsection (2)(b) may only be exercised if it appears to the Secretary of State that there have been significant developments in European or international law or policy that make it appropriate to do so.
(5) Before making an order under this section, the Secretary of State must—
(a) consult the other national authorities, and
(b) obtain, and take into account, the advice of the Committee on Climate Change.
(6) As soon as is reasonably practicable after giving its advice to the Secretary of State, the Committee must publish that advice in such manner as it considers appropriate.
(7) If the order makes provision different from that recommended by the Committee, the Secretary of State must publish a statement setting out the reasons for that decision.
(8) The statement may be published in such manner as the Secretary of State thinks fit.
(9) An order under this section is subject to affirmative resolution procedure.
(1) In this Part a “carbon unit” means a unit of a kind specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State and representing—
(a) a reduction in an amount of greenhouse gas emissions,
(b) the removal of an amount of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, or
(c) an amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed under a scheme or arrangement imposing a limit on such emissions.
(2) The Secretary of State may make provision by regulations for a scheme—
(a) for registering or otherwise keeping track of carbon units, or
(b) for establishing and maintaining accounts in which carbon units may be held, and between which they may be transferred, by the Secretary of State.
The regulations may, in particular, provide for an existing scheme to be adapted for these purposes.
(3) The regulations may make provision—
(a) appointing a body to administer the scheme;
(b) establishing a body for that purpose and making such provision in relation to the appointment of members, staffing, expenditure, procedure and otherwise as the Secretary of State considers appropriate;
(c) conferring power on the Secretary of State to give guidance or directions to the body administering the scheme;
(d) conferring power on the Secretary of State to delegate the performance of any of the functions conferred or imposed on the Secretary of State by the regulations;
(e) requiring the payment by persons using the scheme of charges (of an amount determined by or under the regulations) towards the cost of operating it.
(4) If an existing body is appointed to administer the scheme, the regulations may make such modifications of any enactment relating to that body as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.
(1) In this Part the “net UK carbon account” for a period means the amount of net UK emissions of targeted greenhouse gases for the period—
(a) reduced by the amount of carbon units credited to the net UK carbon account for the period in accordance with regulations under this section, and
(b) increased by the amount of carbon units that in accordance with such regulations are to be debited from the net UK carbon account for the period.
(2) The net amount of carbon units credited to the net UK carbon account for a budgetary period must not exceed the limit set under section 11 (limit on use of carbon units) for the period.
(3) The Secretary of State must make provision by regulations about—
(a) the circumstances in which carbon units may be credited to the net UK carbon account for a period,
(b) the circumstances in which such units must be debited from that account for a period, and
(c) the manner in which this is to be done.
(4) The regulations must contain provision for ensuring that carbon units that are credited to the net UK carbon account for a period cease to be available to offset other greenhouse gas emissions.
(5) The regulations must contain provision—
(a) for determining whether the total amount of carbon units allocated to the United Kingdom for each budgetary period under schemes or arrangements imposing a limit on emissions from sources in the United Kingdom represent an amount of net UK emissions of targeted greenhouse gases for the period greater than the carbon budget for the period, and
(b) for ensuring that, if this is the case, carbon units representing the amount of such emissions in excess of the budget are not used to offset greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.
(1) The following provisions apply in relation to regulations under section 26 (carbon units and carbon accounting) or section 27 (net UK carbon account).
(2) The regulations are subject to affirmative resolution procedure if—
(a) they are the first regulations to be made under those sections,
(b) they specify a carbon unit of a kind not previously specified in regulations made under those sections,
(c) they alter the amount by which—
(i) a carbon unit that is credited to the net UK carbon account for a period reduces the net UK carbon account for that period, or
(ii) a carbon unit that is debited from the net UK carbon account for a period increases the net UK carbon account for that period, or
(d) they make modifications of an enactment contained in primary legislation.
(3) Otherwise the regulations are subject to negative resolution procedure.
(4) The Secretary of State must consult the other national authorities—
(a) in the case of regulations subject to affirmative resolution procedure, before laying before Parliament a draft of a statutory instrument containing the regulations;
(b) in the case of regulations subject to negative resolution procedure, before making the regulations.
(5) The Secretary of State must obtain, and take into account, the advice of the Committee on Climate Change before laying before Parliament a draft of a statutory instrument containing—
(a) the first regulations to be made under those sections, or
(b) regulations making provision of the kind described in paragraph (b) or (c) of subsection (2).
(1) In this Part—
(a) “UK emissions”, in relation to a greenhouse gas, means emissions of that gas from sources in the United Kingdom;
(b) “UK removals”, in relation to a greenhouse gas, means removals of that gas from the atmosphere due to land use, land-use change or forestry activities in the United Kingdom;
(c) the “net UK emissions” for a period, in relation to a greenhouse gas, means the amount of UK emissions of that gas for the period reduced by the amount for the period of UK removals of that gas.
(2) The amount of UK emissions and UK removals of a greenhouse gas for a period must be determined consistently with international carbon reporting practice.
(1) Emissions of greenhouse gases from international aviation or international shipping do not count as emissions from sources in the United Kingdom for the purposes of this Part, except as provided by regulations made by the Secretary of State.
(2) The Secretary of State may by order define what is to be regarded for this purpose as international aviation or international shipping.
Any such order is subject to affirmative resolution procedure.
(3) The Secretary of State must, before expiry of the period ending with 31st December 2012—
(a) make provision by regulations as to the circumstances in which, and the extent to which, emissions from international aviation or international shipping are to be regarded for the purposes of this Part as emissions from sources in the United Kingdom, or
(b) lay before Parliament a report explaining why regulations making such provision have not been made.
(4) The expiry of the period mentioned in subsection (3) does not affect the power of the Secretary of State to make regulations under this section.
(5) Regulations under this section—
(a) may make provision only in relation to emissions of a targeted greenhouse gas;
(b) may, in particular, provide for such emissions to be regarded as emissions from sources in the United Kingdom if they relate to the transport of passengers or goods to or from the United Kingdom.
(6) Regulations under this section may make provision—
(a) as to the period or periods (whether past or future) in which emissions of the targeted greenhouse gas are to be taken into account as UK emissions of that gas, and
(b) as to the manner in which such emissions are to be taken into account in determining UK emissions of that gas for the year that is the base year for that gas.
(7) They may, in particular—
(a) designate a different base year, or
(b) designate a number of base years,
and provide for the emissions in that year, or the average amount of emissions in those years, to be treated for the purposes of this Act as UK emissions of that gas for the year that is the base year for that gas.
(8) For the purposes of this section the base year for carbon dioxide is the year that is the baseline year for the purposes of this Part.
(1) Before making regulations under section 30, the Secretary of State must obtain, and take into account, the advice of the Committee on Climate Change.
(2) As soon as is reasonably practicable after giving its advice to the Secretary of State, the Committee must publish that advice in such manner as it considers appropriate.
(3) If the regulations make provision different from that recommended by the Committee, the Secretary of State must publish a statement setting out the reasons for that decision.
(4) The statement may be published in such manner as the Secretary of State thinks fit.
(5) Regulations under section 30 are subject to affirmative resolution procedure.