Archive for 'Government Policy'
When Do Greens NOT Want A Carbon Floor Price? When Nuclear Gets The Benefits
Posted on 16. May, 2011 by Ross.
The initial headlines were all about political wranglings and conflicts, but the latest UK agreement to reduce carbon emissions has exposed just how fragmented the environmental movement has become.
The Liberal Democrats saw less discord amongst party members for forming a coalition with the hated Conservatives than would have been expected last year. Even the diabolical [...]
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UK Budget 2011 - What’s Green And What’s Greenwash
Posted on 23. Mar, 2011 by Ross.
Here’s all the key green (or really-not-so-green!) changes in UK government policy in today’s 2011 Budget.
Fuel Duty.
Green policies? Run away!
Previous Labour governments declared war on motorists, consistently and unashamedly increasing fuel tax with an aim not just to make more money (although this was hardly a happy accident) but to also drive down the escalation [...]
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California Shows The World (Some Of) America Is Serious About Climate Change
Posted on 17. Dec, 2010 by Ross.
The plans for a US-wide cap-and-trade scheme for carbon emissions might be dead in the water, but California is charging ahead regardless with its plans to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
Although still playing catch-up with Europe, with the long-established ETS and 2020 emission targets of 20-30% reductions from 1990, Californians aims to return to 1990 levels [...]
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CRC Recycling Payments Scrapped In Spending Review
Posted on 20. Oct, 2010 by Ross.
In a move that will outrage business leaders, the UK government has switched the goalposts on participants of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme less than a month after the registration deadline expired.
In a piece of news buried in the Spending Review (point 2.108) and somehow avoiding being leaked in the run-up to the report, the [...]
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Carbon Trust Survives The Spending Review: Waits For Another Review
Posted on 20. Oct, 2010 by Ross.
After months of speculation, the Carbon Trust learnt it’s fate today in the UK coalition government’s Spending Review: that it was up for review.
Firstly, the fears that the Carbon Trust would be axed today proved unfounded, as recently predicted here at Energy-Saving News. With a raft of business support services all axed from the Department [...]
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Carbon Trust Not Axed - Yet
Posted on 24. Sep, 2010 by Ross.
Want to know if you can still apply for those fantastic Carbon Trust interest-free loans for your business’s energy efficiency projects? Need to know if the Carbon Trust is facing the axe under the UK government’s planned spending cuts?
Today a list of quangos facing the axe was leaked by the Cabinet Office, showing almost half [...]
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CRC Deadlines: 4 Weeks To Register, 7 Months To Escape
Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by Ross.
The green media has been reporting that, a month before D-day for CRC registration, 1698 organisations of the 3-4000 CRC participants have already registered, putting the energy-efficiency scheme’ on course’ for the vast majority to register before heavy fines kick in.
What they remain unaware of, is that the same companies only have 7 months left [...]
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International Climate Negotiations Are Dead (Thanks America), But That’s Not Stopping China
Posted on 28. Jul, 2010 by Ross.
Whatever lingering hopes the most blindly optimistic of climate negotiators had of finding further progress in the wake of the Copenhagen disaster was extinguished by the announcement that the US Senate was to abandon its attempts to pass some form of carbon emissions regulation. However, other countries including China are continuing with their decarbonisation strategies [...]
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Carbon Trust Cuts To Fund Green Investment Bank?
Posted on 29. Jun, 2010 by Ross.
According to the Sunday Times, the Carbon Trust is now facing the axe as part of efforts to fund the new green investment bank that successive governments have touted. Whilst green start-ups will be initially excited at the prospect of less red tape and quangos, businesses around the UK look set to lose a vital [...]
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What’s Green In The UK Coalition’s Emergency Budget?
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by Ross.
Today’s emergency budget from the UK’s Conservative-Liberal coalition government has been pre-empted in the press as many things. The austerity budget. The bloodbath budget. The brutal budget. A game-changing budget.
But with the coalition parties having most in common with each other on environmental matters, one question begs to be asked: was today’s budget a green [...]
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Carbon Trust Escapes Lightly From UK Budget Cuts
Posted on 25. May, 2010 by Ross.
The Carbon Trust, which helps fund research into low carbon technologies as well as providing interest-free loans to businesses for energy efficiency, has escaped the worst of the UK government’s spending cuts but still will see a reduction in funding.
Since being elected to power this month, the Conservative-Liberal coalition government has been taking a much-needed [...]



