Energy Saving News
UK Businesses and Organisations Confused Over CRC Scheme
ON April 1 this year the UK Government launched the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, but it seems that about 50 per cent of companies covered by the scheme are uncertain as how it works, how it affects them and what it will cost.
The Carbon Reduction Commitment requires UK businesses, government departments and public sector organisations which use around £500,000 of energy per annum to purchase "allowances" covering their carbon emissions.
The CRC scheme affects about 5,000 organisations across the UK. These businesses and organisations will be rated with the results made public in a league table showing their efforts to become more energy efficient. The better performers will be rewarded while the worst will be penalised.
A survey of 300 businesses conducted by utility company nPower discovered that about half of the businesses questioned did not understand how to buy carbon allowances or even how to calculate their future CO2 emissions. This will lead to businesses and organisations facing unexpected costs when, in the future, they have not bought enough carbon allowances to cover their emissions or have not reduced their emissions enough through such measures as energy efficiency.
With organisations facing either a reward or a penalty, financially, dependent on their performance in the league table they need to understand what their carbon footprint will be, and how to calculate accurately what energy they use and emissions that are being produced.
There is also a positive to those that do get their heads around the scheme, as these businesses can claim financial bonuses for good environmental performance, the reverse is letting it ride and being faced with a large financial penalty - the bonuses and penalties will increase significantly year on year as the UK government racks up the stakes with the current fixed price of £12 per tonne of CO2 emissions, the allowances, becoming subject to the vagaries of an auction.
Organisations affected by the scheme have been able to register from 2 April, and have only until 30 September this year to do so, with penalties for non-registration.
Many other countries are running or considering similar schemes, which means that decision makers in commerce, industry and the public sector need to consider how they can monitor their energy use in an accurate and useful fashion, enabling them to take sound energy saving measures while being able to record and report their carbon emissions.
As with the UK’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme this can provide bonuses financially, adding to profits or budgets on top of the savings made through energy efficiencies.
Picture by Ben Sutherland
Friday 11th June 2010
