Published on 26 Oct 2010 • UK |
"Changes to the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme have been announced as part of the Government's Spending Review. The Environment Agency can provide no further information on these changes at this time. We will be working with the Government to understand the implications of these changes and will provide you with further information as it becomes available."
"The Coalition said they wanted to simplify the complexities of the CRC and they have certainly found a novel way to do that. This will not however 'remove the burden on businesses' as they claim, but ensure that the CRC will cost the wider business community almost £3.5bn more than it would have. Today's announcement contains little detail on the Government's full intentions in respect of the League Table, how allowances sales will function and to what ends the money gathered will be used. We urge the Government to clarify urgently how the revised Scheme will function, as people are making decisions today upon it."
"We are surprised and dismayed that the £1bn per year participating businesses will put in to the Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme is no longer to be recycled to participants but is instead to be pocketed by the Exchequer...This is a stealth tax on business which not only goes back on the commitments given in developing the scheme but removes a major source of incentives to reduce carbon emissions."
"Businesses that have just signed up to the flagship Carbon Reduction Commitment energy efficiency scheme will be very let down by the Government's unexpected announcement that it will remove the cash-back incentive...A scheme that was meant to change behaviour by encouraging energy efficiency has now become another stealth tax."
"Manufacturers have over the last couple of years, put in place significant and costly strategies to comply with the agreed rules of CRC and aim to work with the recycling of revenue regime. They have signed up to the Carbon Trust Standard, at a cost of £15,000 each... and invested in capital equipment on a return on investment basis linked to the CRC rules. The scheme has started and now government turns the rule book on its head and shatters any strategies organisations have in place. I know that for some manufacturing companies this policy change will cost them over £1m per year...Our members are so dismayed at the announcement that we have today written to Gregory Barker to outline our concerns."
"The announcement that government is keeping the money from Carbon Reduction Commitment allowance sales has come out of the blue...It may make the scheme simpler but this is something you've got to consult with industry on before plunging into."
"40 per cent of emissions come from the built environment. This is a bold move by the government to rein this in and put the emphasis on businesses...There are going to be winners and losers, but it's a double whammy for the environment – encouraging industry to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and getting those that don't to fund it."
"at one stroke the UK Government has both simplified the Carbon Reduction Commitment, known as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, and given it teeth...Strengthening the policy to price carbon is likely to greatly help the government meet its target to cut emissions by 34% by 2020. It is also consistent with the broader policy objective of shifting the burden of taxation from 'goods' to 'bads'."
"If you look specifically at the CRC, there was an awful lot of criticism from business of the amount of administration and compliance costs the CRC was imposing, and from our point of view it looked as if it was being imposed with very little effect on carbon reductions...The advice I received was that the impact on carbon reduction was effectively coming from the tax side and not from the very complicated, very baroque system of recycling."
"We are obviously going to look at the whole agenda of green taxes because it was in the coalition agreement that we would be raising green taxes as a share of overall taxation...This is not the end of the story; this is the start of the story."
"I hope that what George Osborne has announced will be enough on the taxation side, but that does not mean there can't be a shift in the increase in the proportion of green taxes combined with a reduction in other forms of taxes."