UK Emissions Trading Scheme: Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA)

4. Step three – Consultation

4.1 Developing the UK ETS consultation

The Authority delivered the public consultation “Developing the UK ETS” between 25 March and 17 June 2022. ^[11] As part of the consultation process, and aiming to gather as much feedback as possible, the Authority delivered 47 UK-wide stakeholder engagement sessions with current and future UK ETS participants, cross-sector business groups, trade associations, think tanks, academics, and environmental NGOs. These sessions included high-level summaries of the consultation and topic-specific workshops, which covered proposals on AFAs and the inclusion of maritime in the UK ETS, among others. Approximately 350 stakeholders attended these engagement sessions, including Scottish stakeholders.

A total of 300 stakeholders responded to the consultation, of which around 120 were identified as particularly relevant for Scotland by policy teams across the Scottish Government.

The responses to this public consultation included a variety of stakeholders, including those from the aviation, chemical, oil and gas, refining, transport, manufacturing, power, food and drink, and steel sectors, as well as other trade associations, local authorities, consultancies, think tanks, academics, and environmental NGOs.

The Authority has produced and published an early and final Government Response to the consultation.

While the “Developing the UK ETS” consultation was open to everyone to contribute, the Scottish Government did not directly consult with island communities at that stage, as changes to the UK ETS are technical and directly impact commercial operators, who did engage in the consultation, rather than members of island communities. Any impacts on island communities will be a result of commercial decisions taken by those operators.