The Carbon Accounting (Determination of Excess UK Assigned Amount Units) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023 No. 557).

These Regulations make provision under section 27(5) of the Climate Change Act 2008 (c. 27) (“the Act”). Regulation 3 requires the Secretary of State to determine whether the UK’s emissions allowance under international emissions reduction targets are higher than the UK’s emissions allowance under domestic carbon budgets. Where the assigned amount is greater, regulation 3 requires the Secretary of State to calculate the number of UK assigned amount units representing the excess. Regulation 3 also sets out what the Secretary of State must take into account when calculating this and requires that UK assigned amount units in excess are not used to offset greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. These Regulations make provision under Section 27(5) of the Climate Change Act 2008 (“the Act”), which requires the Secretary of State to determine whether the UK’s emissions allowance under international emissions reduction targets are higher than the UK’s emissions allowance under domestic carbon budgets. Any excess units representing the difference in stringency between the domestic carbon budget and international targets are to be made unavailable to prevent the UK from using excess emissions allowances to offset greenhouse gas emissions in the UK or elsewhere. The relevant international agreement for these Regulations is the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol which makes provision for the Second Commitment Period (2013- 2020) (“the Second Commitment Period”). The corresponding period under domestic emission reduction targets made under the Act is Carbon Budget 2 (2013-2017) and the first three years of Carbon Budget 3 (2018-2020).