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Green amendments win praise from environmentalists

Posted: 03/11/2008

Amendments to the governments Energy and Climate Change Bills have been welcomed by the environmental and green building lobbies. Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary has bowed to pressure and agreed to include emissions from shipping and aviation in the climate change bill. He has also agreed to a feed-in tariff for small scale renewable heat and power generation.

The renewables industry called on the government to set a timetable for implementing the amendments to the Energy Bill. Ministers have tabled separate amendments to enable tariffs for small scale low carbon electricity and for renewable heat and biogas, but the details are vague and no timetable is given in the legislation.

Philip Wolfe, Director General of the REA, which has been calling for feed in tariffs for some time, commented, “The REA has repeatedly called for the introduction of a tariff and we are delighted that government has recognised that this incentive will encourage new groups of players into the market. We also welcome the recognition of the urgent need to support renewable heat and biogas. Heat represents the biggest energy use in the UK, and had previously been ignored by policy-makers.

However the amendments it has tabled are very vague and the lack of any firm timetable shows that there's still a long way to go.”

The government has also announced that it will include rapidly growing aviation and shipping emissions in Britain's commitment to curb its carbon footprint by 80% by 2050. Miliband will accept an amendment to include these emission sources in the climate change bill which is due to become law next month.

The decision not to include aviation and shipping, which account for 7.5% of all emissions, was seen as a gaping hole in the government's legislation, which is the first measure of its kind in the world. Up to 86 MPs threatened to back an amendment in the Commons, tabled by Elliot Morley, a former environment minister, to include these sources.

Environmentalists were delighted with the decision. Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins said: "The final piece of the jigsaw is in place. The world's first climate change law will also be a world-class climate change law.

"The climate change law is a victory in the fight against climate change and a victory for the hundreds of thousands of people who have campaigned to make this happen. People from right around the UK demanded a strong law. The government have listened."

The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers - CIBSE, a source of expertise for sustainable buildings, said it applauded the overwhelming cross-party support given to the Climate Change Bill which has cleared the Commons with a huge majority (463 votes to three).

Bryan Franklin, Chairman of the CIBSE Policy Committee said: “CIBSE has been calling for the inclusion of emissions from aviation and shipping since 2003 but we recognise that this will put even more pressure on the built environment. CIBSE is ensuring that building services engineers are ready to respond by delivering high performing buildings and improving the existing building stock”.

The new Climate Change Committee will advise the Secretary of State on the consequences of including emissions from international aviation and shipping each time it provides a carbon budget. CIBSE has just finished a project to reduce emissions from its own HQ by 80%.

The organisation has already approached Lord Turner, outgoing Chairman of the Climate Change Committee, to stress the importance of members from the engineering and scientific community on a committee that is dominated by economists and is awaiting the announcement of the new Chairman to start the dialogue anew.

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