17.04.20
Extension to Climate Change scheme to save businesses up to £300m
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have launched a consultation on the terms of extending the Climate Change Agreement scheme (CCA), which is set to save businesses up to £300m a year.
The scheme works to reduce energy usage of businesses by setting targets in return for discounts on the climate change levy on their energy bills.
The newly launched consultation (Apr 16) will mean new targets can be put in place and new energy intensive businesses can sign up and make vital savings from January 2021, with a new end date of March 2025 rather than March 2023.
This two-year extension will allow eligible companies to receive additional financial support by guaranteeing these potential savings, worth up to £300m a year, until 2025.
Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said:
"Extending the Climate Change Agreement scheme will give businesses greater clarity and security at a time when they need it most
"This extension will save businesses money while cutting emissions - a key element of our work to combat climate change in the months and years ahead."
Aside from the monetary benefits of joining the scheme, businesses will be helping to tackle the climate change crisis. Since the CCA was introduced in2013, enough energy has been reduced to power 140,000 homes a year.
Andrew Large, Director General of the Confederation of Paper Industries, said:
"CCAs successfully focus attention onto energy efficiency at production sites. For papermaking, these agreements have helped reduce the energy to make each tonne of paper by a third since the programme started.
"We’re grateful to ministers for listening to feedback and extending the CCA end date and discussing a successor scheme. In the current crisis, this removes one element of uncertainly and helps companies plan for the future with confidence in the knowledge that the government is committed to supporting UK industry."
The scheme is estimated to prevent 700,000 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted each year, which is the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road.
Along with the announcement of the consultation was a published evalutation report on the second Climate Change Agreement Scheme.