UK government publishes response to ETS consultation
The UK government has published its response to the Emissions Trading Scheme consultation, confirming the MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) period will begin on 1st January 2026.
This will be optional not a legal obligation, although the Department for Energy and Net Zero (DESNZ) encourages those who will be implicated to take part from the new year.
You can read the response here.
The consultation states that the MRV-only period in January 2026 "will enable operators to better understand the scheme and help inform our approach to MRV."
The consultation also says the following about the MRV approach:
Whilst no option provides 100% certainty, Carbon-14 analysis combined with Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) provides the highest accuracy and the greatest consistency of available methodologies. Over the course of the voluntary MRV-only period, the Authority will assess possible emissions factor-based approaches against data received from participants and make a final decision on MRV approach."
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There are many things that have yet to be addressed in this UK-ETS approach to EfW:
- C-14 analysis in a gaseous sample cannot be analysed in the UK and only one lab in Germany that I am aware of
- C-14 cannot provide any means of pass-through to the waste producer - as opposed to the EfW plant
- It is still not clear if pass-through of UK-ETS cost is to be regulated or how it is to be operationalised on an equitable basis
- pass-through of UK-ETS cost will be almost impossible to do on an equitable basis for a merchant plant with perhaps upwards of 20 contractors sending waste to the plant. It is theoretically relatively easy if a plant has one or two LA contracts for household waste
- it is easy to imagine a disincentive to the waste management contractor who is diligent about plastic removal but because of the pass-through difficulty finds himself charged the same gate fee as the contractor next door who saves money by not processing out much, if any, of his plastic content and sends it as is to the EfW Plant.