The government’s upcoming Carbon Plan should include a specific strategy for promoting microgeneration, efficiency, storage and demand response across the UK small business community, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).
Lord Prior of Brampton has replaced Baroness Neville-Rolfe at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy after she moved department to become the new Treasury minister.
First minister Arlene Foster has claimed more than half of the circa £400 million committed under Northern Ireland’s Renewable Heat Incentive will not be paid out.
The government has confirmed plans to reduce the tariffs available to small and medium-sized biomass boilers under the non-domestic Renewable Hear Incentive, estimated to result in a 98% drop in installations.
More than 160 NGOs, public institutions and businesses – including major brands such as Sainsbury’s and IKEA – have come out in support of solar over proposed increases to rateable values.
The European Union has confirmed plans to increase its energy efficiency target to 30% by 2030 in an effort to reduce dependency on energy imports while creating jobs and increasing GDP across the trading bloc.
Businesses are demanding greater certainty around the future of energy policy in the UK after last week’s Autumn Statement left them “disappointed at the lack of focus on energy”, according to an open letter to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
A coalition of organisations across the energy sector is calling on the government to take action after an energy audit found that the efficiency of UK electricity supply has remained broadly unchanged since 2010.
Almost a quarter of UK universities are expected to miss the higher education (HE) sector’s carbon reduction targets for 2020 according to People and Planet, which has blamed the removal of government and funding council support for ‘dwindling’ performance.
