LONDON (Reuters) – Participants in Britain’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) have surrendered allowances covering more than 99% of emissions in 2021, the first year of the scheme’s operation, the UK ETS Authority said.
As of May 1, 107,858,729 allowances have been handed in to cover total emissions in 2021 of 107,862,714 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, the authority said late on Wednesday.
All participants in the UK ETS are required to surrender allowances equal to their recorded emissions for the 2021 scheme year by April 30, 2022, it added.
The less than 1% of participants who did not comply with their surrender obligations face a penalty, according to the body overseeing the scheme.
The UK ETS came into effect on Jan. 1, 2021, replacing Britain’s participation in the European Union’s ETS. It applies to energy intensive industries, the power generation sector and aviation. The first phase of the UK ETS will run until 2030.
(Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; Editing by Edmund Blair)
