Alberta Unveils Changes To Its Credit And Offset Regime: What's In Store For Large Industrial Emitters

On December 6, 2017, the Government of Alberta released guidance documents regarding the new Carbon Competitiveness Incentives (CCI) Regulation, which will come into force on January 1, 2018 and replace the existing Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER). While the guidance documents are quite extensive and provide glimpses into what the CCI Regulation will entail, there are also several concepts that remain unclear, such as references to CCI pricing, allocation of free emissions, determination of carbon leakage risk, and exactly how and what aspects of the CCI Regulation will be phased in over a three-year period.

ELIGIBILITY THRESHOLD AND SECTOR-BASED EMISSIONS PERFORMANCE

The CCI Regulation will apply to any facility that has emitted 100,000 tonnes or more of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2003. As such, it will generally apply to the same facilities that are presently regulated under the SGER. It will also require