The CRC Survival Kit

Practical Law Company (PLC) has produced a CRC Survival Kit, which provides a one-stop shop for information on the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, also known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC).

The CRC Survival Kit contains a package of online, continuously maintained materials designed to help any professional understand and comply with the CRC. It is relevant to lawyers and business people alike, including environmental and energy managers. Click here to find out what's included in a subscription to the CRC Survival Kit.

To subscribe, or for further information, please complete your details on the right.

If you already subscribe, click on the links inside each bubble in the diagram below to access the materials in the CRC Survival Kit.

CRC Survival Kit Am I in the CRC Ask the team CRC timeline Issues for specific sectors League table Metering The basics Penalties and fees Renewable energy and CHP Reporting Sale and trading of allowances Training Transactional toolkit Weekly e-mails

Topic list

What's included in a subscription?

The CRC Survival Kit

A subscription gives you access to all the CRC materials online, which are continuously kept up to date by the PLC Environment team. In addition, subscribers receive a weekly e-mail about the latest CRC developments and notifications of any new additions to the CRC Survival Kit.

PLC Environment

A subscription also gives you access to all the other materials on the PLC Environment website, covering a wide range of topics such as zero carbon buildings, renewable energy, waste, contaminated land and environmental permits. To find out more about PLC Environment, click here.

To subscribe, please complete your details on the right.

About PLC Environment

PLC Environment provides online materials about environmental law for companies, lawyers, investors, insurers, consultants and others doing business in the UK. This service is designed to help you understand the law and stay up to date with the latest developments. PLC Environment will also help you manage legal risk and compliance and identify investment opportunities at an early stage.

PLC Environment covers a wide range of topics, including:

  • Climate change, including the CRC
  • Renewable energy
  • Carbon trading
  • Zero carbon buildings
  • Chemicals
  • Contaminated land
  • Waste
  • Environmental permits

For a full list of the topics covered, see the PLC Environment homepage.

Resources

A subscription to PLC Environment gives you access to a number of resources, including:

  • Legal updates
    Practical current awareness bulletins delivered to subscribers by e-mail and published on our website
  • Practice notes
    Clear and detailed explanations of environmental law and policy
  • Standard documents
    A bank of standard documents (including warranties and indemnities) for use in commercial transactions
  • Checklists
    Practical step-by-step guides to environmental issues that arise in the context of commercial transactions
  • Cross-border Environment Handbook
    Concise summaries of environmental law in a number of other jurisdictions

Our materials are written and maintained by a team of specialist environmental editors with years of experience in the private and public sectors, as shown below.

To find out more about PLC Environment, please complete your details on the right.

 

The PLC Environment team

Sara Feijao

  • Heads up the PLC Environment service
  • Environmental lawyer
  • Worked at Herbert Smith, Travers Smith and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
  • Was seconded to the European Commission

Becky Clissmann

  • Environmental lawyer
  • Worked at Eversheds and Denton Wilde Sapte
  • Was seconded to ABN Amro and Goldman Sachs to work on their energy and emissions trading documentation
  • Worked at the Carbon Trust, the UK Power Exchange (UKPX) and the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE)

Peter Harvey

  • Environmental lawyer
  • Worked at Burges Salmon and Veale Wasbrough
  • Worked in a local authority planning team

Liz Thomas

  • Environmental lawyer
  • Worked at Freshfields, Allen & Overy and Slaughter and May
  • Seconded to one of Freshfields' major clients

Sophie Simpson

  • Environmental lawyer
  • Worked at Linklaters

Elliot Cross

  • Paralegal
  • Law (LLB (Hons)) from City University, London
  • Legal Practice Course (LPC)

Jenna Dodd

  • Paralegal
  • BA (Hons) in French and German from University of Manchester
  • Graduate Diploma in Law
  • Legal Practice Course (LPC)

Dipika Kachhala

  • Paralegal
  • BA (Hons) in Law from University of Oxford
  • Legal Practice Course (LPC)
  • Worked at Ashurst

What's new?

PLC is constantly adding new materials to the CRC Survival Kit. We will let subscribers know about any new content via our weekly e-mails.

Click here to view a list of the new materials we have published recently and the new materials we are planning to publish soon.

Sample materials

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: The essential guide for the Board and their lawyers

A guide to bring organisations that may be affected by the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) and their lawyers up to speed on how the CRC could affect them.

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: PLC timeline

A timeline to show what happens in each Phase of the CRC, and how the various Phases overlap with each other.

CRC: new UK carbon trading scheme

An article on the coming into force of the CRC in April 2010.

Summary of Environment Agency CRC conference

An update on a number of issues raised at a CRC conference held by the Environment Agency on 24 February 2010. These type of updates form part of PLC's weekly e-mails.

" Peterborough City Council signed up to Practical Law Company’s CRC Survival Kit in March 2010. We have found the wealth of information available really useful. It is great to have a set of robust, easy-to-follow guidance documents online that we can refer to as and when we come to make key CRC related decisions. For example, the CRC webcast has been an excellent way to get to grips with the scheme. The actions we are taking to prepare for the CRC are now gathering pace. Knowing that we have an easy to use library of resources to tap into gives us some of the confidence we need to embark upon this new and challenging scheme. "

Charlotte Palmer, Team Manager
Climate Change, Peterborough City Council

" We use the PLC CRC Survival Kit as our external CRC resource. This area is multi-faceted and PLC has done some serious thinking about the various issues that may be of practical concern. It really is a tremendous effort and a great piece of work, which we have been happy to recommend. "

Louise Moore, Partner
Herbert Smith LLP

" I've been very impressed with the quality and accessibility of the documents in the CRC Survival Kit. "

Charlotte Prosser, Senior Counsel
Group Legal, AXA UK

Sample resource: Ask the team

Ask the team: CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: How do I disaggregate an SGU?

Resource type: Legal update: archive

Jurisdiction: United Kingdom

An Ask the team article on how a group of companies covered by the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) can apply to disaggregate a Subsidiary Group Undertaking (SGU).

For a detailed explanation of what an SGU is and in what circumstances a Group can apply to have one of its SGUs disaggregated under the CRC, see Practice note, CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: impact on corporate structures: Disaggregation of SGUs.

 

Question

I work for the highest parent company in a group of companies that is covered by the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC). For the purposes of the CRC, the company that I work for is the Highest Parent Undertaking and the Primary Member for that Group.

One of the larger subsidiaries within my Group qualifies as a Significant Group Undertaking (SGU) (that is, it meets the Qualification Criteria on its own). How do I apply to disaggregate that SGU?

Terms that appear in capital letters in this Ask the team are defined in Practice note, CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: PLC glossary and abbreviations.

Answer

For an explanation of what an SGU is and in what circumstances a Group can apply to have one of its SGUs disaggregated under the CRC, see Practice note, CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: impact on corporate structures: Disaggregation of SGUs.

Where a Primary Member wishes to disaggregate an SGU, it should nominate that SGU for disaggregation when it applies for registration.

Organisations that are covered by the CRC need to register as Participants in the Introductory Phase during the period 1 April to 30 September 2010. However, if you wish to apply to disaggregate an SGU, you must do so within the first three months of the registration period (that is, by 30 June 2010). The reason for this is that the SGU that is being disaggregated needs to have enough time to register itself as a stand-alone Participant.

If you miss this deadline, you will not be allowed to disaggregate the SGU in question and the SGU will therefore participate in the CRC as a part of your Group for the Introductory Phase, rather than as a stand-alone Participant. This means that you (as the Primary Member) will need to report on, and buy Allowances for, that SGU's emissions.

The SGU in question needs to agree to the disaggregation before the Group's registration is submitted, and the Administrator needs to decide whether it consents to the disaggregation. For example, if disaggregating an SGU were to result in the remainder of the Group having Qualifying Electricity supplies of less than 6,000MWh in the Qualification Year, then the Administrator will not consent to the disaggregation.

Importantly, if the SGU in question fails to register as a stand-alone Participant by 30 September 2010 (despite the Primary Member having registered and having nominated the SGU for disaggregation as part of its registration by 30 June 2010), the SGU will be treated as still forming part of the Primary Member's Group.

Further information

For more information, see:

Existing subscribers

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