# The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) (Extension to Maritime Activities) Order 2026, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Order)
The United Kingdom Emissions Trading Scheme (the “UK ETS”) was established by the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020 (the “UK ETS Order”). The purpose of the UK ETS is to limit, or to encourage the limitation of, the emission of greenhouse gases from certain activities during the ten “scheme years” beginning in 2021. Operators of certain industrial installations and certain aircraft operators are required to monitor, report on, and surrender “allowances” equivalent to, their greenhouse gas emissions in each scheme year. This Order expands the coverage of the UK ETS to include greenhouse gas emissions from certain maritime activities.
The effect is to require operators of certain ships arriving at ports of call in the United Kingdom to obtain an “emissions monitoring plan” (to document the processes through which it will ascertain the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the maritime activities of its ships) and, for each scheme year, to monitor, independently verify, and report to the regulator its maritime emissions, and to surrender a level of allowances equivalent to those maritime emissions.
This Order inserts Schedule 2A into the UK ETS Order and amends the Order to provide as follows—
Part 1 of Schedule 2A to the UK ETS Order contains at paragraph 2 definitions that are used in the Schedule.
Paragraph 3 defines the “maritime operator”, the entity responsible for compliance in respect of a ship.
Paragraph 4 outlines the requirement to provide notification of a change of responsibility.
Paragraph 5 lists ships to which Schedule 2A applies.
Paragraph 6 provides the meaning of “port of call”.
Paragraph 7 provides the meaning of “maritime activity”.
Paragraph 8 lists activities excluded from scope.
Paragraph 9 provides for the making of applications for emissions monitoring plans.
Paragraph 10 outlines how these applications are to be considered by the regulator.
Paragraph 11 provides for refusal of an application for an emissions monitoring plan.
Paragraph 12 provides for variations to emissions monitoring plans.
Paragraph 13 applies an obligation to undertake monitoring of maritime emissions in accordance with Part 4 of Schedule 2A.
Paragraph 14 outlines the requirements around reporting such emissions, through an annual emissions report and sets out the requirement on verification of the annual emissions report.
Paragraph 15 sets out the requirement of maritime operators to surrender allowances.
Paragraph 16 outlines maritime monitoring and reporting principles.
Part 3 of Schedule 2A outlines the content to be included in an emissions monitoring plan.
Part 4 of Schedule 2A provides for the methods through which to determine maritime emissions.
Part 5 of Schedule 2A provides for data management and control.
Part 6 of Schedule 2A provides the formulae with which to calculate maritime emissions.
Part 7 of Schedule 2A outlines the content to be included in the annual emissions report.
Part 8 of Schedule 2A contains details on verification and accreditation.
Part 9 of Schedule 2A contains details on the determination of values for emission factors.
Schedule 2 of this Order contains consequential amendments to the UK ETS Order, as required for the functioning of the maritime regime within the existing UK ETS structure. This includes adding maritime activities to the scope of the scheme (see paragraph 5 amending article 16), clarifying the meaning of regulator in relation to maritime operators (see paragraphs 3 and 4 amending article 9 and inserting article 13A), and disapplying for the purposes of the maritime regime the Monitoring and Reporting Regulation 2018 and Verification Regulation 2018 (see paragraphs 8 and 9). Paragraph 10 amends article 35 to enable regulatory charging in respect of the maritime regime, and paragraphs 11 to 16 amend Part 7 (Enforcement) of the UK ETS Order to extend this to maritime.
An impact assessment of the effect that this expansion of the UK ETS will have on the costs of business, and on the public sector, is available from the Industrial Decarbonisation and Emissions Trading Directorate, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, 3-8 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2JP, and is available alongside the instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2026/9780348278279/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-greenhouse-gas-emissions-trading-scheme-amendment-extension-to-maritime-activities-order-2026/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.