climate change act
Towards a low carbon economy
Will the business case for investment in renewables and climate change
technology become apparent when the UK moves out of recession?
It would be easy to see one of the Minister’s It will help everyone in Government progress
first tasks as rationalising the long list of low towards a low carbon economy.”
carbon initiatives which have emerged over
the past few years.
As the summary (opposite) indicates, these
Monitoring as route to savings
cross many Departmental boundaries and The Informed Executive has focused in previous
range from the Zero Carbon Task Force of DCSF editions on carbon reduction in different ar-
to the NHS Sustainability Development Unit eas of the UK economy.
and the Councils Carbon Trading Scheme. In education and local authorities, we dem-
There is a danger that, while each of these onstrated that one of the most effective ways
schemes works well within its own ‘silo’, there of achieving rapid reductions was to monitor
is little exchange of information or resources energy consumption at a micro-level – break-
between initiatives in different Departments. ing down a school into small units, for exam-
Was there not a case for DECC to co-ordinate ple, and tracking utility consumption in real
these efforts into a concerted programme from time within each of them.
which all those affected could benefit? This is particularly relevant given the high pro-
portion of a local authority’s qualifying consump-
Carbon targets to drive efforts
tion under the CRC that is accounted for by
schools and colleges within their regions.
Joan Ruddock does not see a need for such a Publishing that consumption data electroni-
radical overhaul of the individual initiatives cally so that all of the stakeholders in an es-
as the Climate Change Act 2008 itself provides tablishment can see where energy is being
the co-ordinating influence. “The Act provides wasted has achieved tangible savings.
for carbon budgets that will be set later this year, Government estimates, endorsed by the
and at five yearly intervals. They will define the Carbon Trust, confirm that around 20% sav-
trajectory to which the programmes already in ings are possible in situations where those
place will drive their own efforts. able to influence consumption can monitor,
“To meet the overall targets, we will require observe and then take simple steps to react.
a range of different mechanisms to achieve Perhaps more to the point, in schools and
the savings in each of the sectors affected. other community-based institutions, the ‘mes-
Many of the initiatives already in place com- sage’ is rolled out into those communities by
plement schemes such as the Carbon Reduc- pupils, teachers and staff. Could the same ap-
tion Commitment which is now out to consul- proach not be adopted more generally in the
tation before taking legal effect. We do not economy, so that monitoring becomes a ma-
feel, therefore, that DECC has to arrive at an jor factor in energy reduction?
all-encompassing scheme. The Minister accepted the underlying prin-
“The point is that the Department was es- ciple. “It is an absolute pre-requisite that if
tablished as a pivot in Government to tackle you are going to make any changes in energy
climate change and provide affordable energy. consumption, you need to see where your
The Minister accepted that, without effective monitoring and measurement of their consumption,
energy users could not determine their starting point for participation in energy trading schemes.
The Informed Executive
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