The inquiry -
Reducing carbon emissions from
UK business: The role of the Climate Change Levy and Agreements
, has been announced alongside a National Audit Office (NAO) report,
Climate Change Levy and Agreements
.
Our input
The House of Commons Committee is particularly interested in hearing EEF's views on issues such as the effectiveness of the CCL and CCA in increasing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions and to see how they fit together with other policy measures, such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the proposed Carbon Reduction Commitment. It wants to understand the economic impacts on the businesses, and the wider economy and consider whether and how they might be improved.
Why this matters to business
The timing of this inquiry is important, as the government is currently turning its attention to whether CCA should be extended beyond their current end date of 2012. Whilst EEF believes that the agreements are not prefect, it acknowledges that they were extremely beneficial in forcing energy efficiency higher up the agenda at a time when energy prices were considerably lower than today and news about climate change was not in the media every day, as it is now.
Protecting the CCL discount
EEF will call on the government to retain these agreements that enable energy intensive companies to receive a discount on this energy tax for agreeing to reduce emissions year on year. The cancellation of the CCL discount would increase energy costs to members significantly and put them at a disadvantage against their European and global competitors.
In addition to the questions raised by the EAC, the NAO has highlighted a number of issues for the EAC to scrutinise. The NAO report explores further the issue of whether the CCAs are value for money and do indeed reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
EEF will be submitting a written response to the EAC based on both the EAC questions and the issues raised by the NAO report.
The deadline for written submissions is 28 September.