Blog

18th January

Webinar Takes Carbon Connect into New Territory
 

On Monday, Carbon Connect presented an online 'webinar' in partnership with the 2 Degrees Sustainability Network. More than 50 people logged into the session, listening to a policy update on outcomes from our last report and the broadening policy landscape for energy efficiency.

Taking up on our last report, inquiry Co-chair Julius Brinkworth’s presentation detailed how energy prices are likely to rise still further, and identified that whilst businesses are changing their attitudes to energy management and looking for ‘offers wrapped up into a single solution’, there is still a huge amount of money that could be saved.

Steve Barker - Head of Energy Efficiency and Environmental Care at Siemens - also spoke, outlining the need for a very complicated picture around rules and regulations for environmental management to be cut down to size. He also identified the imperative for a holistic programme for energy management, which could ‘multiply costs savings by a factor of four over an ad-hoc approach.’ 

After the presentations, a point was made questioning business take-up of Feed in Tariffs, Brinkworth and Barker both agreed that businesses were starting to realise the benefits of the tariffs but that the recent cut to solar PV incetives would do nothing to encourage investment. 'The longer you keep them, the longer notice you give to businesses (of changes), and the less you play around, the more effective they are', said Brinkworth. 

Barker went on to made the point that, with the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, a huge opportunity was missed to give energy management board-level visibility. 'The scheme initially required the responsibility of a senior-level director...but because of all the confusion and changes that went on, they lost that visibility.'     

Into the future, a more coherent incentivisation framework for business energy efficiency policy does appear to be crystallizing, improving the chances of attitudes and behaviour in the private sector changing. However, these policies are not without their critics –

The government’s Green Deal will include specific steps to target non-domestic properties, both in terms of financial packages and the energy saving technologies included. Despite this, concerns have been raised that the offering to businesses will not be strong enough to encourage take-up, with proposals meaning they would have less protection against interest rate rises and make it far less likely that their repayments will meet the ‘Golden Rule’. These doubts are in addition to several reports claiming the scheme will lead to a 93% decrease in loft lagging.  

As part of Electricity Market Reform proposals, a market-wide capacity mechanism will be introduced. The intention of the mechanism will be to provide the grid with additional capacity at times of high stress. However, the design is set to tackle this problem in a novel way, providing incentives not only for additional supply but also demand-side response. National Grid will contract providers of so-called ‘nega-watts’, encouraging companies to profit from reducing their load and providing capacity at key points in the day. Full details can be found in the Department for Energy and Climate Change-authored Planning our Electric Future: Technical Update.

The EU’s European Energy Efficiency Directive looms large in the background. Despite complaints from several member states that it will be too costly and its scope too wide (estimates of its cost to the UK public sector estate alone are £50Bn), it does appear as though the Commission’s attempt to reinvigorate the efficiency part of its 20:20:20 goals will get an airing of some form. But after undergoing two redrafts and being hit with 2000 proposed amendments in the European Parliament, a Danish MEP has admitted that the current Presidency still still has some work to do to get the directive ratified by the EU Council of Ministers. 
 

4th January

Carbon Connect/Associate Parliamentary Manufacturing Group: Debate on Energy-Intensive Industry

Our December event explored the tensions between energy-intensive industry and carbon reduction, with contributions from a range of experts including Climate Change Minister Greg Barker MP. 

In his remarks, Mr. Barker strongly backed the £250 million subsidy granted to electricity-intensive manufacturers in last year's Autumn Statement, saying 'there is absolutely nothing environmentally friendly about exporting jobs, exporting businesses, exporting firms -particularly when they go to far less well-regulated, higher carbon emitting economies.'

He also expressed disappointment with elements in the environmental lobby - comments reported in the Financial Times - and stated unequivocally that 'decarbonisation should not mean industrialisation.'      

 

15th November
 

Issues with Electricity Market Reform 

In light of our recent and highly enlightening event on Electricity Market Reform with Energy Minister Charles Hendry MP, this blog concerns three of the main aims of the Government's Electricity Market Reform proposals and where they may be in danger of stumbling - 

Leveraging £110Bn of Investment by 2020
To reach our 2020 EU Renewable Energy Target, the UK will need to get about 30% of its electricity from renewable supplies, up from 7% in 2010. This means doubling the current level of investment in new generation and distribution equipment and poses a significant challenge for government and industry. Continuing uncertainty about how renewable generation technologies will be supported, and what exact returns on investment will be, could lead to an investment hiatus and is seen by many as an obstruction to this ambition. FiT contracts for difference are intended to assuage these concerns.

Ensuring Energy Security
As a greater proportion of our energy comes from intermittent and inflexible sources, the UK is exposed to a greater risk of blackouts and enforced voltage limitation in the future. To mitigate this, significant short-term deployment of new CCGT plant is planned in the coming years to cover immediate supply short-falls caused by the retirement of existing nuclear and fossil-fuel plant. However, continued reliance on this form of generation could inhibit the emissions performance standard and the goal of generating energy at lower carbon intensity (the CCC estimates that 50g CO2/kWh by 2030 is the level required to meet our carbon budgets). More work may be required to develop policies which both decarbonise and enhance security of supply.

Increasing Competition, between both Companies and Technologies
The ‘Big Six’ supply energy to around 99% of consumers in the UK. In order to ensure a diverse set of suppliers and supplies, and guarantee the best possible deal for consumers, the Government wishes to increase competition in the market. Measures to encourage new entrants to energy markets include: giving them exemption from regulatory schemes (eg CERT), obliging larger companies to sell more of their energy on wholesale markets and doing more to combat predatory pricing. The intention of these measures is to make inevitable rises in the cost of energy as constrained as possible given increasing generation costs.
 

27th September

Meg Hillier Highlights Hard Rain as a Warning for World Governments 

Meg Hillier, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, made the following reference to the Hard Rain Exhibition in her speech at the Labour Party Conference today.

'And if you have any doubt (about the effects of climate change), look into the eyes of these child workers in Manila Bay. This stunning, shocking picture is called 'Where The Pellets Of Poison Are Flooding Their Waters', words from Bob Dylan's song 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall'.
The lives and communities of these little children are being damaged by actions on the other side of the world. Actions we could do something to stop. Hard Rain is the name given to an amazing series of photographs by Mark Edwards. He's been documenting the effects of pollution and climate change for over 20 years. For the sake of children like these, we must stem dangerous climate change.' 

As Rio+20 draws nearer, we hope the ideas and images from Hard Rain will help to stimulate a renewed international committment to sustainability goals.  

Read a report from Hard Rain's parliamentary Launch here.

29th July

Hard Rain 2 Exhibition

Ahead of the Hard Rain Parliamentary launch on 5th September, the video above shows exhibition creator Mark Edwards speaking about the project and its message about creating a safe and sustainable future.

6th July

Panelists Positive about Mandatory Carbon Reporting

“What gets monitored gets managed” was the overarching sentiment at a Carbon Connect seminar held in June to debate the merits of mandatory greenhouse gas reporting.

Coinciding with Defra’s consultation announced in May, the parliamentary discussion was led by representatives from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), Defra, the National Grid and professional service advisors Ernst & Young (both of whom voluntarily measure their emissions).

Chairing the event, attended by experts from across the energy sector, was Barry Gardiner MP. Gardiner kicked off the discussion by outlining the benefits to businesses of measuring their emissions.

The Labour MP for Brent North said that ‘reporting is an opportunity for businesses to manage their resources better, to be sure that they know how their own business model is functioning, minimise their costs and to prepare for a change in energy policy that they see coming down the line in the next 10-15 years." He concluded with his hope that "we will see carbon reporting not simply as a burden for business, but also an opportunity for business," he said.

David Kennedy, Chief Executive of the CCC, an influential advisory body, spoke positively about mandatory GHG reporting. But he warned that this approach would only be truly useful if combined with league tables, if emissions involved in an organisation’s transport and supply chain were considered, and if the policy framework was streamlined. He went onto suggest the introduction of mandatory GHG reporting could substitute other measures already in place such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment. This would reduce the burden on business, but of course, should only happen if the financial implications of such a move made sense.

Meanwhile, Steve Wallace, Head of Climate Change and Environment at the National Grid, explained the financial benefits to a large organisation in reporting their emissions – voluntarily or not. National Grid have made £200,000 savings at one US plant alone. Such savings came from staff scrutinising emissions and therefore the organisation’s spend on expensive carbon; an indication that staff are much more enthusiastic about reducing their carbon footprint than the normal budgetary squeeze. On the other hand, he cautioned that for smaller companies, the costs of reporting may exceed the benefits.

The panel was completed by Sue Whitehead from Defra, who explained the detail of the consultation, and Andrew Britton from Ernst & Young. Mr Britton asked that the aims of such reporting be made clear and that any UK regime be designed to coincide with those in France and the US so that multi-national companies would not have to follow several different guidelines.

The end vote returned 32 in favour of mandatory reporting; 2 against. We will hear the vote of UK business now the Defra consultation has been closed.