Inform Carbon Reduction ENERGY FEARS
Sharply increasing energy costs are more of a concern to manufacturing businesses than rising wages, according to a new report. Research from the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) shows that 60% of manufacturers say rising power bills are their biggest fear. The poll of 1,000 manufacturers, carried out anonymously by MSS research, also found over half (52.4%) said the same about increasing cost of supplies and components, while only 35% said rising labour costs were their biggest worry.
REFORM ON ITS WAY? Ideas including smashing the dominance of the Big Six energy providers and radical- ly reforming power subsidies have been put forward. The plans are included in the latest report by the Energy and Climate Change Committee and are the conclusion of months of questioning of ministers, NGOs and industry figures. Its report calls for “funda- mental reform” of the whole- sale energy market to “break up the dominance of the Big Six energy companies”. The committee believe this overhaul will encourage new business to invest in the UK. In its Electricity Market Reform report the committee also looks at Feed-In Tariffs, which are being reviewed by the Government. According to the report, proposals for Electricity Market Reform are supposed to ‘encourage’ companies to deliver clean affordable energy, even when there are more inflex- ible sources of electricity. The committee is con- cerned that the EMR propos- als are ‘over-complex’.
Government blames low take-up for demise of QAS
The Government has closed its programme for providing assur- ance for the quality of carbon offsets due to a low take-up of the scheme among businesses. The
Quality Assurance
Scheme (QAS) will be cancelled next month and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has written to all busi- nesses that are accredited to the programme to let them know. The QAS offered assurance that carbon offsets bought on the vol- untary market were cancelled or retired to stop them being sold again. It began in 2009, but DECC said that the decision to close the scheme was because take-up had been “disappointingly low”. It also cited the need to “align limited resources with departmen- tal priorities”. DECC has had to part-fund the scheme over the past year despite it being designed as self-financing. “The carbon market has moved on substantially since the intro- duction of the QAS and we now believe it is for the market to set
Anger as offset scheme is scrapped
The scheme accredited offsets for British Airways and others
best practice for carbon offset- ting,” said a DECC spokesperson. The scheme, which accredited offsets for the likes of British Airways and TAP Portugal, only attracted four carbon offset retail- ers to join it. But despite the low take-up, those that have signed up to the QAS claim it helped them tackle flaws in the carbon offset- ting system. It was the only stand- ard that ensured the carbon cred- its had been retired or cancelled, rather than merely accrediting the offset method used.
Carbon Retirement, one of the retailers that has been accredited by QAS, said the decision to close it was a “real blow”.
“The QAS is a guiding light for consumers in an incredibly crowded marketplace,” said Jane Burston, founder of the organi- sation. “With 18 separately-run voluntary standards, and the risks in the offset market around lack of transparency and environmental effectiveness, the QAS had the potential to cut through the noise. “The scheme was designed to be self-sustaining but has had very little public exposure since launch. It’s disappointing
that DECC
has decided to cancel the scheme, instead of increasing its visibility and making the high-quality off- sets it represents more accessible,” she said.
Renewables key to energy needs
IPCC report sees potential for mitigating climate change
The panel established to enforce the United Nations’ work against climate change believes that 80% of our energy needs could be met by renewables by the middle of this century.
However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says this would only be possible if backed by the right enabling public policies, says a new report. The work involved researchers working with the IPCC and also claimed that the rise of renewable
energies could lead to cumulative greenhouse gas savings equivalent to between 220 and 560 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide saving between 2010 and 2050.
“The IPCC brought together the most relevant and best avail- able information to provide the world with this scientific assess- ment of the potential of renewable energy sources to mitigate climate change,” said IPCC chairman, Rajendra Pachauri.
“This report can serve as a sound knowledge basis for policymakers to take on this major challenge of the 21st century.”
The IPCC says the right enabling public policies must be in place
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