The fully online journey
How to buy carbon allowances
Six steps take a UK business from "which scheme are we even in?" to allowances surrendered or retired: registry account, volume and timing, live quote, execution, done.
Every step runs online. No trading screen to learn, no broker theatre, and the fee on the ticket where you can see it.
Before you start: two questions
First, which scheme applies. The UK ETS and the EU ETS are separate markets with separate registries, separate prices and, since the 2023 revision of the EU directive, different surrender deadlines. If your sites straddle both, our comparison of how the UK and EU emissions trading schemes compare settles which side each installation falls on.
Second, why you are buying. Compliance buyers are obliged to surrender allowances against verified emissions. Voluntary buyers retire allowances by choice to stand behind a Scope 1 net-zero claim. Both run through the same journey below; only the final step differs. New to the units themselves? Start with what carbon allowances are and who needs them.
The six steps, start to finish
This is the whole journey as we run it for clients, with nothing hidden behind a discovery call.
- 01
Confirm the scheme and the purpose
Work out whether your sites fall under the UK ETS, the EU ETS, or neither. Regulated installations and aviation operators buy for compliance; other businesses buy in order to retire allowances voluntarily as part of a Scope 1 net-zero claim. The answer decides which unit you need: a UK Allowance (UKA) or an EU Allowance (EUA), each covering one tonne of CO2 equivalent.
- 02
Open the registry account
Allowances only exist as entries in a government registry, so you need an account before you can hold any: the UK Emissions Trading Registry for UKAs, the Union Registry for EUAs. The account is opened in your name and everything in it is yours, not ours. We guide the application and the identity and due-diligence checks that come with it. Start this step early: it is the one stage of the journey we cannot compress.
- 03
Set the volume and the timing
Compliance buyers take the volume from their verified annual emissions; voluntary buyers choose the tonnage that sits behind the claim. Timing is where advice earns its keep: we provide auction-window vs secondary-market execution guidance, and larger orders are often phased across both routes rather than placed in one clip.
- 04
Take a live quote
We hold the live forward curves for both schemes via an independent licensed wholesale feed, the same feed behind our public UK ETS and EU ETS price pages. Your quote is built against that feed and delivered online, so you can check it against the day's settlement before you accept anything.
- 05
Execute online
Accepted trades are routed through regulated broker counterparties. Execution is priced per trade, and the broker fee is shown alongside the underlying allowance price on every trade ticket. The journey is digital end to end, with no phone calls required, which is what keeps execution costs lean.
- 06
Surrender or retire
Compliance buyers surrender allowances against verified emissions: by 30 April each year under the UK ETS, and by 30 September under the EU ETS. We run compliance-cycle alerts ahead of both deadlines. Voluntary buyers use our retirement workflow instead, cancelling the allowances permanently so they can stand behind a Scope 1 net-zero claim.
Why the journey is online, and why that matters to your price
Allowance broking has traditionally been a telephone business, and telephone businesses carry telephone costs. We built the desk digital end to end instead: the quote arrives against the live UK allowance price we trade against (and the live EU allowance price for EUA orders), you accept it online, and the ticket shows the broker fee next to the allowance price. Lean process, lean execution costs, and a price you can audit.
We work for you, not the suppliers. There is no spread buried in the allowance price and no obligation to take anything else from us. If you do want the surrounding compliance work handled, our SECR and ESOS reporting services sit alongside the allowance desk as a separate retainer. When you are ready to price a volume, start your allowance order and the journey above begins at step one.
What execution looks like in practice
Logistics operator, 1.2m tCO2e Scope 1, ETS-regulated
- The situation
- Half the annual UKA volume needed before April 30 surrender, market had moved 18 percent in the prior month.
- The outcome
- Phased UKA execution across the auction window plus secondary buys, weighted average price beat the daily settlement by 4.2 percent. Surrender filed with 6 days to spare.
Buying questions, answered
- Can I buy carbon allowances without a registry account?
- Not if you want to hold them yourself. Allowances exist only as registry entries: UKAs sit in accounts in the UK Emissions Trading Registry and EUAs in the Union Registry. The account is opened in your name, the allowances in it are yours, and we guide the application and run the trading around it.
- Do I have to take part in auctions to buy allowances?
- No. Auctions are one route in; the secondary market trades day to day. We advise on auction-window vs secondary-market execution for each order, and larger volumes are often phased across both rather than committed to a single route.
- Is the whole purchase really online?
- Yes. The scheme check, the quote, the execution and the surrender or retirement paperwork all run digitally, with no phone calls required. That lean process is deliberate: it keeps execution costs down. If you would rather talk an order through first, the desk is on 0161 521 3400.
- What does it cost to buy through Purely Energy?
- Execution is priced on a per-trade basis, and the broker fee is shown alongside the underlying allowance price on every trade ticket. Nothing is bundled or hidden. We work for you, not the suppliers, and the ticket shows it.
Deadlines, registries and voluntary retirement in more depth: see the full carbon allowance FAQ.
Price your allowance volume today
Tell us the scheme, the volume and the deadline. The quote comes back against the live wholesale feed and the whole journey runs online.