Government Business

The government’s Low Carbon Industrial Strategy was launched 6 March. The accompanying vision statement begins with the observation that “the transition to a low carbon world will transform our whole economy”. It adds: “The public sector has to demonstrate leadership in the move to a low carbon economy. The public sector could save a significant proportion of the £4 billion it spends on energy each year through energy efficiency measures. The public sector could also boost demand for innovative low carbon products and services as part of the £175 billion it spends annually on providing public services.”
 
The government estate has already been set a target of becoming ‘carbon neutral’ by 2012 – but what does this mean and how to achieve it? There is no agreed definition of ‘carbon neutral’, or of ‘zero carbon’, but since policy and targets increasingly refer to these concepts, some clarity is urgently needed if we are to make progress to a low carbon economy.
 
In an effort to clear up some of the confusion, the government has published consultations on each of these terms: ‘carbon neutral’ by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC); ‘zero carbon buildings’ by Communities and Local Government (CLG).

Carbon neutral
The purpose of the DECC consultation is to agree a draft definition of the term carbon neutral that can be used by any individuals and organisations, including for the goods and services they provide. However, the government makes clear at the outset that it is not promoting ‘carbon neutral’ – just trying to clarify it. There will be a further consultation later this year to revise the Green Claims Code developed by Defra.
 
The definition offered by DECC is: “Carbon neutral means that – through a transparent process of measuring emissions, reducing those emissions and offsetting any unavoidable emissions – net calculated carbon emissions equal zero.” This definition makes the point that offsetting is only allowable after all the ‘local’ carbon reduction measures have been addressed: offsetting all emissions would not count as ‘carbon neutral’.

Zero carbon
Government policy is that all new homes will be ‘zero carbon’ from 2016 and new non-domestic buildings from 2019. The consultation proposes a definition of zero carbon based on high energy efficiency, on or near-site renewable low carbon or renewable energy, with grid-delivered low or zero carbon energy to deal with the remaining energy demand.
 
The 2007 policy statement Building a Greener Future put forward a stricter definition where grid-connected power could not be used to achieve zero carbon status. Some groups argued that this was too strict, especially in inner-city areas where sufficient land for on-site or near-site renewables was just not available. The government has therefore allowed grid-connected low or zero carbon power to be included in the definition under consideration.

Priorities
In both consultations, using ‘outside’ resources to achieve the target – offsetting for carbon neutral and grid-connected supplies for zero-carbon – is described as a way of dealing with ‘remaining’ emissions after on-site measures have been tried first.
 
The issue that concerns the Energy Services and Technology Association (ESTA) is how strongly this will be policed. In many cases, it will be much simpler and cheaper to source the carbon savings from somewhere else, rather than from the building development or manufacturing facility itself. Yet, if the majority of emissions reductions are achieved in this way, such an approach would make the much publicised low carbon economy just a matter of smoke and mirrors.
 
If we are going to be serious about reducing emissions and tackling climate change, then we must start with our own sites, not pay for someone else to do it in another part of the country (or the world). This is for two reasons.  

First, we currently have a large disparity between energy demand and UK production – and this imbalance is set to continue. If we make no effort to reduce demand as a first step to reducing emissions, then we will have no way to address security of supply issues. As we have seen in the previous two winters, when supplies to various parts of Europe were disrupted due to disputes beyond the EU’s borders, that puts us at the mercy of events beyond our control.
 
Second, merely switching to low carbon energy sources does nothing in itself to restrain demand – indeed it could even increase it. That puts an increasing strain on global resources and infrastructure and makes the concept of ‘sustainable energy’ even more unlikely.
 
The focus must therefore rest with reducing demand as much as possible before considering the use of on-site renewables and then – and only then – should off-site sources of energy (or emissions credits) be allowed. 

Energy efficiency is the foundation
The consultation on zero-carbon buildings sets out a hierarchy of measures, starting with energy efficiency, going on to ‘carbon compliance’ (on-site low and zero carbon technologies and directly connected heat) and then finally to ‘allowable solutions’ for dealing with ‘residual emissions’.
 
It says: “Government believes that, whatever the mix of onsite energy technologies and other offsite solutions adopted, all zero carbon homes should be built to very high standards of energy efficiency. Such an approach prioritises measures which are likely to be cost-effective in the longer-term and will generate wider benefits to the economy as a whole, for example reducing the overall energy requirement to be met from relatively costly renewable energy.” 
 
It goes on: “High energy efficiency standards will help secure energy and carbon savings over the lifetime of the building, without relying on the investment or behavioural choices that occupants will make. This is because energy efficiency measures which are part of the fabric of the home should have a longer lifetime than energy supply technologies such as micro-generation. They should be less vulnerable than micro-generation to the risk of occupants not using them or removing them altogether.”
 
The consultation also notes the need to improve the efficiency of systems used to provide space heating, hot water and ventilation. Up till now, the building regulations have required relatively rudimentary levels of controls on these systems. ESTA believes there is great scope for further improvements. Control and management technologies for energy and water have been developing rapidly over the last decade or more, a situation the government is starting to recognise (automatic Monitoring & Targeting systems are specifically mentioned in the latest version of the Building Regulations and advanced metering is to be introduced for virtually all non-domestic customers within the next five years). There is still much more that can be achieved though.

Achieving clarity
The consultations on defining ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘zero-carbon buildings’ are concerned with achieving clarity. But this is not merely about the elements that can be included and those that cannot. It must extend to the process itself, the relative importance of each element and the order in which each is tackled. Energy efficiency, in particular, has to be the foundation of any low carbon economy, no matter how it is defined.

The Energy Services and Technology Association (ESTA) represents over 100 major providers of energy management equipment and services across the UK. 

For more information
Web: www.esta.org.uk