Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) are voluntary agreements between UK industries and the Environment Agency (EA) to reduce energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. In return, participants receive a discount on the Climate Change Levy, a tax on electricity and fuel bills. The EA administers the scheme on behalf of the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) for the entire UK.

The current CCA scheme, which began in April 2013, will conclude in June 2027. Following a consultation process, a new scheme is being planned to extend the program further.

A new digital solution is needed to replace the decommissioned legacy system, which reached end-of-life and was non-compliant with current standards. The new system is being developed by Trasys-Unisystems under a contract with DESNZ, and it will enhance and expand the functionalities of the old system.

1. Trade Sector Associations, e.g. National Farmers Union, Scotch Whisky Association

2. Consultants (external energy auditing specialists), e.g. Jacobs; SLR Consulting

3. Operators, e.g. Tesco, Diageo

4. Regulator, The Environment Agency

This section shows the key User Journeys delivered by the Private Beta MVP and expected users and volumes.

User Service Journey Transactions Per Annum Trade Sector Association or Consultant Administer User Accounts and invite users 50-150 Regulator Create and manage Target Unit accounts 50-100 Trade Sector Association or Consultant Complete & Submit Application for Underlying Agreement 50 Regulator Agreement Determination (approval) 50 Trade Sector Association or Consultant Agreement variation 50-100 Trade Sector Association or Consultant Target Unit Voluntary Termination 180 Regulator Target Unit Admin Termination 30 Operator View (read-only) access to Underlying Agreements 20

Underlying Agreements are the Climate Change Agreements that lay out the targets and principles by which a Target Unit (TU) will reduce emission or energy consumption over the Target Period. If Target Unit meets the terms of the Agreement, the business will be eligible for a discount on the Climate Change Levy on energy.

Target Unit – A target Unit is a group of Facilities, (e.g. supermarkets) usually within a single UK company entity (e.g. Tesco). It can be one or many facilities per TU, and a company can have one or many TUs (e.g Tesco ‘South’ and Tesco ‘North’).

Multiple TUs can be overseen by a Sector Association for that sector (e.g. all Tesco’s TUs could be administered by the British Retail Consortium).

High level user needs this service aims to meet

As a Trade Sector Association or Consultant, I need to make CCA applications for an Underlying Agreement on behalf of a target unit, so that their scheme Underlying Agreement submission can be assessed by the Regulator and an agreement issued for the target unit

As a Trade Sector Association or Consultant, I need to make CCA scheme variation submissions and submit terminations on behalf of a target unit, so that the variations to their Underlying Agreement can be assessed by the Regulator and an amended Underlying Agreement issued

As a Trade Sector Association or Consultant, I need to submit CCA Underlying Agreement terminations on behalf of a target unit, so that I can request the regulator to terminate the target unit’s agreement if appropriate to do so

As a Trade Sector Association or Consultant, I need to submit CCA Target Unit reporting data, so that I can submit my performance against a specific target period, to confirm that I have met (or not) the predefined terms with the Underlying Agreement

As a Trade Sector Association I need to invite Consultants or operators So that they can undertake responsibilities for the Trade Sector Association regarding CCA agreements

As a Trade Sector Association I need to voluntarily terminate an Underlying Agreement So that they no longer apply to my organisation when they are no longer relevant of required.

As an operator I need to review my scheme documents and data So that I can review and confirm that the scheme documents and data are correct

This will enable me to derive CCL discounts from my energy provider and tax relief through HMRC, which is the responsibility of the scheme owner, and these actions are not in scope of the project.

As a Regulator I need to assess the Underlying Agreement submissions So that I can determine if these meet the necessary policy requirements for approval.

As a Regulator I need to review CCA scheme Underlying Agreement variation submissions So that I can determine if the variations meet the necessary policy requirements for approval.

As a Regulator I need to review CCA scheme reporting submissions So that I can determine if the data provided meets the eligibility criteria for certification and issue buy outs if the scheme is not eligible for certification.

As a Regulator I need to review CCA scheme reporting submissions So that I can determine if the data provided meets the eligibility criteria for certification and confirm that the scheme is eligible for CCL Discounts.

As a Regulator I need to review CCA Underlying Agreement termination submissions So that I can terminate the agreement for the target unit if appropriate to do so

As a Regulator I need to review CCA Underlying Agreements
So that I can invoke an administrative termination of the agreement for the target unit if appropriate to do so

As a Regulator I need to determine CCA Underlying Agreements variations that have been approved So that I can provide the Trade Sector with a dedicated period of time to review, challenge or accept the proposed variation

As a Regulator I need to be able to invite other users and manage their user status and the user access to the solution So that I can confirm that these meet the necessary policy requirements to enable Trade Sector Associations, Consultants and Regulators to access the system and perform necessary actions

As a Regulator I need to produce and extract data for the scheme So that I can provide and share these to stakeholders including Trade Sector Associations, Consultants and other .GOV departments.

As a Regulator I need to send notifications to the Trade Sector Associations So that I can raise queries, ask for additional information, advise of necessary actions in the portal

As an Operator I need to review the details held with the Underlying Agreement for my organisation So that I can obtain CCA information pertaining my organisation