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Editorial advisory panel Laurence Aston, Director, Buro Happold


Patrick Conaghan, Partner, Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers


David Hughes, Building Services Consultant, MTT Consulting Philip King, Director, Hilson Moran


Chani Leahong, Senior Associate, Fulcrum Consulting


Alan Tulla, President, The Society of Light and Lighting


Professor John Swaffield, CIBSE Past President


Ged Tyrrell, Managing Director, Tyrrell Systems Ant Wilson, Director, AECOM Morwenna Wilson, Graduate Engineer, Arup Terry Wyatt, Consultant to Hoare Lea


Christopher Pountney, Graduate Engineer, AECOM


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From the editor


An omission on emissions M


ajor government policy announcements can be as interesting for what they don’t say as for what they do. When


George Osborne, the UK Chancellor, unveiled his four-year spending review, a great deal was said about cutting carbon emissions. One signficant confirmation was that the Renewable Heat Incentive would be introduced (although, of course, with reduced funding). Feed-in tariffs (FiTs), aimed at encouraging householders to save energy, are safeguarded, too – although, ominously, the scheme will now be ‘refocused’ on selected technologies (see pages 8 and 14). At the time of writing


there is no indication which specific systems will fall foul of this moving of the FiT- eligibility goalposts, but manufacturers and specifiers will want to know soon enough, since the scheme is already being taken up by householders. Other matters also


There is still time for the


coalition to show it is serious about cutting carbon emissions from our buildings


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need clarifying urgently in the wake of Osborne’s announcements – particularly if the coalition is still aspiring to be the greenest-ever government. One crucial omission from the laying-bare of departmental spending plans was the whole issue of energy certificates for non- domestic buildings. More specifically, when will the government clarify its intentions for the wider roll-out of display energy certificates (DECs) that are currently required for public buildings, to the commercial sector? The Department for Communities and Local Government consultation on this question ended some months ago, yet ministers still seem to be dithering. This perhaps suggests that certain


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forces in government – which, it is rumoured, include no less than the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles himself – do not want the roll-out to occur when it would add burdens to the private sector at the worst possible time. Pressed on the matter by the Journal, Pickles’s department has revealed that the extension of DECs to commerical buildings may now be voluntary rather than mandatory (see page 8). If this turns out to be the case, then the roll-out will, in effect, be a non-event, as it is the current requirement on public buildings to display and update their DECs that is having a positive impact on climate change. And to date, very few commercial properties have adopted DECs voluntarily since the system came into force in 2008. What we have still to see


from this coalition is some real commitment to a regulatory regime for requiring energy certificates for all non- domestic buildings. Ministers can also give a massive boost to their credentials and go further than the previous


government by actually backing such a regime with real enforcement teeth. As CIBSE’s Compliance Campaign has emphasised, it is no good leaving it to overburdened – and, after the spending review, even more severely financially squeezed – local trading standards departments to enforce the energy certificates system. So, despite the swingeing cuts now facing the nation, there is still an opportunity for Osborne and his coalition colleagues to show they are serious about cutting carbon emissions from large parts of Britain’s building stock.


Bob Cervi, Editor bcervi@cibsejournal.com November 2010 CIBSE Journal 5


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