Carbon emissions trading and reporting schemes
Climate change agreements (CCA)
Some sectors and business types are eligible for agreements on reducing energy use and carbon emissions in return for tax breaks.
What are Climate Change Agreements?
Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) are voluntary agreements made between United Kingdom industry and the Environment Agency to reduce energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In return, operators receive a discount on the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax added to electricity and fuel bills.
Find out how to:
- register, keep records, calculate what you owe and report Climate Change Levy
- pay your Climate Change Levy
- access the manuals, forms and reference materials for Climate Change Levy
CCAs are available for a wide range of industry sectors from major energy-intensive processes such as chemicals and paper to supermarkets and agricultural businesses such as intensive pig and poultry farming.
There are two types of CCA:
- umbrella agreements, negotiated with industry sectors
- underlying agreements, held by operators of site with targets for their type derived from umbrella agreements, and managed by sector associations
How to comply with Climate Change Agreements
The current CCA scheme started in April 2013 and will run until 31 March 2025.
An operator that has a CCA must measure and report its energy use and carbon emissions against agreed targets over two year target periods up to the end of 2022.
If an operator has more than one eligible facility in the same sector it can hold an individual CCA for each facility or choose to group them together under one CCA. Where facilities are grouped under one CCA the target is then shared across the grouped facilities.
Once a facility, or group of facilities, is included in a CCA, it is referred to as a target unit.
If the operator’s target unit meets its targets at the end of each reporting period, the facilities continue to be eligible for the discount on the CCL.
The reduced rate certificate lists facilities entitled to claim a discount on the CCL and is updated on the last working day of each month. You can find spreadsheets of the facilities included in the reduced rate certificate.
Check if the processes you run are eligible for inclusion in a CCA.