UK BUSINESSES BUY EMISSIONS TRADING

Firms brace for looming carbon bill
Kabir Chibber, 4 June 2009 (BBC News)

"Carbon trading is all the rage now…The European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has been around since 2005 and accounts for most of the carbon dioxide (CO2) allowances issued to businesses in the world…President Barack Obama has also thrown his weight behind a cap-and-trade scheme.

"…[T]he UK will soon adopt a carbon trading scheme of its own in less than two years - the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC)…carbon consultancy IMServ believes that up to 6,000 businesses in the UK will be liable to join the mandatory scheme…[and] are facing huge bills if they remain unprepared."

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"The CRC scheme will begin next April when the large businesses and public sector organisations, including the NHS and state schools, begin monitoring their emissions and reporting them to the government…[P]articipants will be published by October 2011 showing the targets, reductions in emissions and so on…[R]etail businesses will be hit the hardest with over 30% of total CO2 emissions…The next largest polluters are manufacturers, at 15%, followed by the public sector…

"…[B]usinesses gathered at a carbon and energy summit… to discuss how best to deal with the carbon trading scheme…Much of the talk was about how the government's scheme was an opportunity for businesses to reduce their CO2 emissions now…"

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"…[T]he Carbon Trust, a government-sponsored agency that helps businesses lower their footprint…[and] also helped develop the CRC scheme…[said a business] had saved £1m a year off its energy bill just by switching off the screensavers on the computers in their offices…[It was] seemingly small gestures, rather than complete overhauls, that were suggested…[including] installing smart meters…The government already plans to put one in every home by 2020.

"Some in the press have labelled the CRC scheme as another stealth tax on businesses…and [because of the EU ETS, there is] the obvious problem of a company possibly being penalised for the same carbon footprint twice…There are also the issue of how useful the scheme will be…But surprisingly, there was little grumbling about the CRC scheme itself. It seems most businesses are happy to accept that they will be a critical part of fighting climate change…[T]here is rare unity among the world's politicians that carbon trading is the way to do it."