ResourcesCCA Target Period 7 (2026)
News · Energy & compliance2 min read
Target Period 7 is the one you are in, and it ends on 31 December.
The new Climate Change Agreements scheme began with Target Period 7, which runs from 1 January to 31 December 2026. If your site holds an agreement, the ratio you will be assessed on is being set by how the factory runs this year, and most of this year has already happened.
Written 5 October 2026. The dates below come from SI 2025/813 and the Environment Agency’s guidance on managing a CCA. Your sector association and the scheme’s own Operations Manual are the authority for your site. This is not advice on your obligations, and we are not your CCA scheme administrator.
The dates
- Target Period 7: 1 January to 31 December 2026. Reporting for it is due by 1 May 2027.
- Target Period 8: 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2028.
- Target Period 9: 1 January 2029 to 31 December 2030.
- The certification that carries the levy discount runs to 31 March 2033.
How the target, the ratio and the buy-out fit together is set out in Climate Change Agreements in plain English. This piece is only about the period you are in now.
Why a one-year period is different
The periods either side of it run for two years. Target Period 7 runs for one. A two-year period leaves room to recover from a bad quarter; a one-year period leaves much less, and it closes on a fixed date whether or not anyone has looked at the number.
If your kWh per kilogram is worked out from site-wide meter readings after the period closes, you see it once, at a point where nothing in it can be changed.
What the last quarter is still good for
The last quarter will not undo the first three. It is still worth something, for two reasons.
- Everything the factory runs between now and 31 December still counts towards Target Period 7.
- Target Period 8 starts on 1 January 2027 and runs for two years. Knowing now which machine, which shift and which product moves your ratio is the starting position for that longer period, rather than something you find out halfway through it.
Check the date on any buy-out figure
Under the new scheme the buy-out price is not a fixed number. SI 2025/813 sets it by formula, from the Climate Change Levy rates for gas and electricity, so it can change from one period to the next. Some published guidance still quotes a figure from an earlier period. We do not quote one here: your sector association can tell you the rate that applies to your site for Target Period 7.
If you want to see your own number
If your site holds a CCA and you want to see your kWh per kilogram measured at the machine rather than estimated from the bill, ask an engineer, or ring 0161 475 6291 and say it is a CCA question.