Government 2007 Energy White Paper

The UK government published the Energy White Paper in 2007.

The key announcements of the paper were:

(1) Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) – a mandatory national scheme requiring large commercial organisations to reduce their emissions. The CRC will include banks, supermarkets and large local authorities – those businesses that usually spend more than £500,000 a year on electricity and will include between 2000 to 5000 organisations.

(2) Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) - launched 1st April 2008 and will run until 2011. It places an obligation on energy suppliers to help householders reduce their carbon footprint. Energy suppliers must provide energy efficiency advice and subsidies to households.

(3) Improved information displays for businesses and households - a requirement for new meters to come with a real-time display from 2008 and a short term offer of free displays from energy suppliers for households to 2010. The government wants to encourage the roll out of 'smart meters' to everyone within the next 10 years with all but the smallest businesses having a 'smart meter' within the next 5 years.

(4) Publication of a consultation paper setting out how the energy efficiency of consumer electronics will need to improve. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that at home we waste over £900million per year by leaving appliances in stand-by when not in use. See www.mtprog.com/Whitepaper.aspx

(5) A consultation set out the Government’s preliminary view that new nuclear power has a role to play alongside other low carbon technologies.

(6) Publication of its Biomass Strategy, which seeks to realise a major expansion in the supply and use of biomass in the UK.