With the best of the summer behind us, DECC has now published its eagerly awaited consultation on the future of the Climate Change Agreements. CCA consultations appear to developing an interesting definition of the seasons with this consultation announced in the Budget for the summer, following an autumn consultation in December last year. That aside the substance of the consultation is nothing new to the CCA community having been briefed a number of times by the succession of DECC officials. However some of the additions have surprised me.
Chief amongst these is the proposal that the Environment Agency should act as the administrator of the CCAs in England. Although the proposal to appoint an administrator came as no surprise, I feel it flies in the face of the coalition government’s stated goal of reducing the administration and cost burden on industry.
I had expected something on reducing the burden on government, but we had been assured that no decision had been made as to who would administer the scheme. I understand the government’s desire to reduce costs, but I’m concerned that a move to a new administrator risks the loss of expertise both within government and industry.
I also can’t see how the additional administrative burden required to transfer all the data, history, and knowledge of the agreements of 10,000 sites to a new administrator won’t add costs and complexity.
I feel strongly, and have argued that the sector associations, who have over 10 years of experience in managing the scheme and working with their respective industries, would be best placed to take on the role of administrating the scheme. This would of course require a robust audit process, but I think it represents the best opportunity to reduce cost and administrative burden for both industry and government.
Another gripe is the decision to not allow trading in the CCA, although again not surprised by government’s proposal, I am disappointed that the CCA started as a trading system and should continue as a traded system. However, we have lobbied tirelessly on this and government knows our position well.
Those concerns aside there are many positives and I broadly support many of the recommendations set out in the consultation, for example the proposal of two year (24 month) target periods will not only ensure government’s desire for participants to be continually measured, but reduces the burden of annual reporting.
All in all it looks like this will be an interesting consultation.