Response to the National Audit Office UK Emissions Trading Scheme report

Comment by Emily Ford, Senior Energy Policy Advisor – Carbon Policy, Energy Systems Catapult:

A rapid and cost-effective decarbonisation of our economy needs consistent incentives for reducing emissions and for investing in low carbon innovation. Currently, the pattern of carbon pricing across different sectors of our economy is uneven, which means that certain sectors are over-rewarded for their efforts to reduce emissions whilst others are under-rewarded. As a cornerstone of UK climate policy, the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) can help to fix this imbalance. Its expansion into new sectors, such as maritime and waste is a step in the right direction. Further extending the UK ETS to heat and road transport would unlock significant emissions reductions in our homes and communities.

Making good decisions about how to decarbonise and which low carbon technologies to prioritise relies upon transparent, robust and comparable emissions data. The National Audit Office has rightly recommended a review of the UK ETS Authority’s arrangements for monitoring and verifying this data. Our proposal for an economy-wide Carbon Regulator to oversee emissions reporting and verification would help to build investor and consumer confidence, cut risks, and create a level playing field for innovation.