Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Greenhalgh on 16 July (HL1706), whether the Environment Agency takes any legal account of CO2 emissions when issuing permits; and whether any local authority has "supported the transition to a low carbon future" by requiring carbon capture technology as part of planning permission.

On the UK's exit from the European Union all relevant EU environmental legislation became part of UK law. This includes the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) which prescribes much of the permitting requirements the Environment Agency delivers through permits issued to installations in England, under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR).

The UK no longer participates in the EU Greenhouse Gas Trading System (EU ETS) Directive and has established its own emissions trading scheme. The same framework applies, and the ETS explicitly and directly seeks to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The Environment Agency is the regulator in England for the ETS and for other climate change regulatory frameworks which may also apply to certain activities, whether they require permits or not. These include Climate Change Agreements and the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme.

Where an installation's emissions of greenhouse gases are subject to the ETS (which, given the larger scale of IED activities, is likely), the IED prohibits the Environment Agency from setting emission limit values in the environmental permit under EPR. Instead, emissions of greenhouse gases are regulated via the ETS which requires operators to obtain separate ETS permits, to monitor and report all their greenhouse gas emissions and to surrender allowances for every tonne of carbon dioxide, or equivalent, emitted (one allowance is equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide).

The Environment Agency seeks to limit direct and indirect emissions of carbon dioxide and many other greenhouse gases via its EPR permitting approaches for all relevant activities, whether subject to IED or not. Examples include requirements on energy efficiency and resource efficiency (including water, energy and waste) by requiring applicants of such activities to scale and assess the impact of their emissions on global warming (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/assess-the-impact-of-air-emissions-on-global-warming and attached to this answer), with the intent of reducing their emissions by selecting the best available techniques and processes to control their emissions.

The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that the planning system should support the transition to a low carbon future, including by supporting renewable and low carbon energy and associated infrastructure. Local Planning Authorities should consider this when considering whether to grant planning permission. Where relevant, this can include considering the appropriateness of carbon capture technologies.