Budget 2016 & The Future of CRC

The most significant green policy announcement this week actually came a day before the budget, when Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom announced that the UK will enshrine in law a long-term goal of reducing carbon emissions to zero, as called for in last year’s historic Paris climate deal.

However, the key news today came shortly before 3pm today when George Osborne announced a reform of the Carbon tax. For many of our CRC customers, the most interesting point to note is the abolition of the CRC, but not until 2018-19.

Osborne confirmed that the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) will be abolished, but not until the end of the 2018-19 compliance year.

The CRC will be replaced with an increase in the Climate Change Levy (CCL) from 2019.

Contracts for Difference

£730m will be dedicated to the next wave of Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions for ‘less established’ renewable  technologies including onshore wind.

Energy Storage/Demand-Side Response

The government will allocate “at least £50m” for innovation in energy storage, demand-side response and other smart technologies over the next five years

Osborne announced that the supplementary charge for oil and gas producers will fall from 20% to 10%.

Nuclear Energy

A small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) to be built in the UK, and will publish an SMR delivery roadmap later this year. It will also allocate at least £30m of funding for R&D in advanced nuclear manufacturing.

Flood Defence Spending

Budget 2016 announces an additional boost to spending on flood defence and resilience of over £700m by 2020-21.

The most significant green policy announcement this week came a day before the budget, when Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom announced that the UK will enshrine in law a long-term goal of reducing carbon emissions to zero, as called for in last year’s historic Paris climate deal.

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Reference: http://www.edie.net/news/11/Budget-2016-energy-environment-green-policy-George-Osborne-key-points/