Industrial Emissions Directive Transitional National Plan for Large Combustion Plants Established
What is the new legislation:
The Large Combustion Plants (Transitional National Plan) Regulations 2015
Who does this effect: United Kingdom
When does this change take place: 31st December 2015
These Regulations are intended to provide a legal basis for the operation of a time-limited derogation available in respect of existing large combustion plants under the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) (Recast) (“the IED”). Plants within the Transitional National Plan (TNP) have a transitional period in which to achieve IED emission limits, and may participate in emissions trading to help support that transition.
The Regulations establish the duties and powers of the Secretary of State, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, and the Department of the Environment Northern Ireland, and the operators of plants participating in the UK TNP.
The Regulations set out that the Environment Agency will be responsible for maintaining a register of the participating plants and collating reports on their emissions of the relevant pollutants, which will be produced by operators and submitted to their relevant regulator.
The Regulations also establish an emissions trading system, which will allow participants to trade any unused ‘emission allowances’ with other participating plants in order to reduce total costs of implementation while delivering the same level of overall environmental benefits. Existing environmental permitting legislation provides the necessary framework for ensuring compliance and the issuing of penalties for noncompliance with the conditions of the UK TNP.
The UK TNP will be implemented from 1 January 2016 and will finish on 30 June 2020.
The full text of the Regulations can be found here.
Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk