Making the switch

[ENDS REPORT]

Lord Hunt outlines how the UK plans to shift the entire economy in a low-carbon direction


The energy used to power offices, businesses and factories accounted for around 6% of the world’s emissions last year, so making workplaces more efficient and moving to a low-carbon economy makes good business sense and will help to tackle climate change.

Our planet, our economic prosperity and even our lives hang in the balance as a result of climate change caused by man-made CO2 emissions. While developing countries have been hardest hit by changes in the climate, the UK and the rest of the developed world will not be immune. We could be subject to more freak weather events such as droughts, heat waves and flooding.

Developed nations need to demonstrate leadership. That is why the UK has put itself in the shop window by committing to reduce CO2 emissions by at least a third from 1990 levels in just 11 years.

Earlier this year, the UK government launched The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, an ambitious document setting out how we are going to achieve the cuts. We need to be committed and put the right structures in place, but without the support of industry and individuals, we will achieve nothing.

At the very heart of this plan is how we are going to help businesses make the switch to a low-carbon nation and help to capitalise on the economic opportunities.

By last year, 880,000 people in the UK were working in the low-carbon and environment sector worth £106bn per year. By 2020, this could rise to more than one million people if opportunities are seized to establish the UK as a global centre of low-carbon industries and green manufacturing.

We are backing our green ideas with hard cash. Up to 2012, more than £50bn will be spent on low-carbon investment. This includes £6bn to increase the amount of renewable energy and £405m to support the development of a world-leading low-carbon and advanced green manufacturing sector in the UK.

To help make workplaces more energy efficient, we are including high-carbon industries in the EU emissions trading scheme and incentivising businesses and the public sector to save energy through programmes including the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC).

The CRC is a mandatory scheme that comes into force in April next year and will affect around 20,000 private and public sector organisations. It will save at least 4m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2020 and will also help organisations to save money through reduced energy bills.

Some £100m is available through the Carbon Trust in interest-free loans for small and medium businesses in the UK to improve energy efficiency. Some successful applicants report their energy bills have reduced by as much as 75%.

The public sector is being helped too. Some £54.5m in interest-free loans is available in England to install energy efficiency technology measures in buildings such as schools and fire stations.

The loans will help pay for the upfront costs of fitting things such as boiler replacements, lighting upgrades and insulation. It is estimated that this scheme could save £14m per year in fuel bills, which means more money can be spent on delivering services to the public.

The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan is a green blueprint that will not only set the country’s businesses on a course to combating climate change but will also inspire other nations to take action to ultimately save the planet.

Lord Hunt, Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), leads for the department on ensuring that the UK has a secure, low-carbon and affordable energy supply, supports the Secretary of State on international energy and represents the DECC in the House of Lords.


Article reproduced from the Carbon Yearbook
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