BEIS have now published their consultation on the extension of the CCA scheme, as announced in the Budget in March.

We are currently in the second phase the CCA scheme. This phase of the scheme closed to new entrants in October 2018, reporting was set to end after 2019-2020 period, and the associated Climate Change Levy relief was set to end on 31 March 2023.

The extension:

The scheme will reopen to new entrants until October 2020
A new Target Period, Target Period 5, will be added (2021-2022)
Relief on Climate Change Levy will be extended to end of March 2025, if Target Period 5 targets have been met or a buy-out fee has been paid.

The government is also proposing:

A baseline update: To update the baseline year for all sector associations and target units to 2018. Sector associations would be required to submit baseline data to the Environment Agency with sufficient time ahead of new umbrella agreements being issued in November 2020. CIABATA, has 2017 data from most participants owing to the 2017 dry-run exercise, and their 2017-2018 data from formal Target Period 3 reporting. Using these two sources, we should be able to derive a participant’s 2018 data if required. We would need to collect data from those who did not participate in the 2017 dry-run exercise.
New targets for 2021-22: Target Period 5 targets will be agreed through bilateral negotiation with sector associations. BEIS will contact sector associations with its initial target proposal in April 2020. As yet, CIA has not heard from the government. We will update members in due course.
Surplus removed: Banked surplus from Target Periods 1-4 will not be available to offset any under-performance against the Target Period 5 target. The reason given for this is that early actors will already be benefitting from lower energy and emission costs and will need to be further encouraged to make changes.
Buy-out price increase: The buy-out price would be increased to £18/tCO2e for Target Period 5.
Penalty increase: For inaccurate data in relation to baselines or reporting for Target Period 5, the penalty will be the greater of £250 or £18/tCO2e, i.e. it would change in line with the buy-out price.

The deadline for responding to the consultation is 11 June 2020. CIA will be responding to the consultation on behalf of members. The CIABATA Membership Committee, comprised of CCA participants with CIABATA and CIA membership, will be responsible for target negotiation with BEIS.