Businesses to appeal against carbon commitment
Businesses are being urged to raise a series of objections to the Carbon Reducation Commitment (CRC) scheme, which is due to come into force next April.
The consultation period for this controversial regulation ends on June 4 and many leading business figures have been publicly slating the scheme in the national press.
Around 5,000 organisations will have to report their carbon emissions and buy carbon credits from the Government at a cost of £12 per tonne from April. They will be reimbursed by the Government six months later plus or minus an amount based on their energy performance over the period.
This has upset several leading companies and organisations like the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who say tying up money in carbon credits will reduce the ability of businesses to invest in improving their energy performance and so will defeat the stated objective of the regulation.
Any company, school or other public facility that consumes more than 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity per annum will be included in the CRC. Tesco estimates that it will have to buy £40 million worth of carbon credits and one manufacturers' lobbying body said that a typical member of the scheme would pay around £130,000 a year.
Firms can earn a bonus of up to 10 per cent of the amount they spend on carbon credits depending on where they rank in a league table that will be produced by the Environment Agency at the end of each reporting period.
Penalties for failing to comply with the regulation are punitive:
Companies will be fined £5,000 for failing to register plus £500 a day for everyday they continue to avoid their obligation:
the penalty for failing to disclose information is £1,000;
failing to provide an annual emissions report costs £5,000 plus 5p per tonne of carbon a day for 40 days at which point the rate is doubled;
incorrect reporting is fined at a rate of £40 per tonne of carbon; and failure to keep proper records will cost CRC members £5 per tonne of carbon.
For more on the CRC click here.