Businesses fear carbon cutting regulation will make UK uncompetitive
February 27th 2008 A survey of British businesses has revealed strong concern that government regulation to reduce carbon emissions will make the UK uncompetitive and add more cost than benefits.
The fifth npower Business Energy Index (nBEI 5) canvassed senior managers and energy buyers at SMEs and large industrial and commercial firms on attitudes to energy use, costs and CO2 emissions, revealing the unease within the business community about the existing CO2 reduction framework of regulation.
When questioned about the new Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) – a new carbon reduction scheme aimed at large businesses, announced last year in the Energy White Paper – 71% of intensive energy users said they believed that the scheme would make the UK uncompetitive. And, when asked about the implementation of such regulation, 63% of respondents said they thought the costs of doing so would outweigh the benefits. Less than half (48%) believed that the CRC would achieve its target of removing 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year by 2020.
Demonstrating further concern, 75% of intensive energy users surveyed said they thought the combined pressures of the Climate Change Levy, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the new CRC – the UK’s main schemes to reduce CO2 outputs from business – will place an undue burden on business.
“Businesses have faced a raft of new legislation in recent years, with more now promised in the form of the CRC, so it is understandable that they may feel the responsibility to reduce CO2 is being placed at their door. However, with the UK’s CO2 emission targets becoming legally binding this year, we cannot escape the fact that all businesses will be called on to reduce their carbon footprint,” said Paul Coffey, managing director of npower business.
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