§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what proposals he has to encourage businesses to improve their environmental practices. [46226]
§ Angela Eagle[holding answer 16 June 1998]This Government's long term goal is sustainable development. Under the legally binding targets agreed at Kyoto, the European Union agreed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, on average, by 8 per cent. Under the UK Presidency, we have secured agreement with other Member States on how to meet this European Union target. The UK contribution is to reduce emissions by 12.5 per cent. This, together with the Government's own manifesto commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent., has to be planned for. These are challenging targets and all sectors—business, domestic and transport—need to play their part in meeting them.
431WThe Government currently have a wide range of existing programmes and initiatives to encourage business to improve its environment practices beyond the minimum standards set by regulation. These include: the Best Practice Programmes for Energy Efficiency and Environmental Technology; the promotion of environmental management within business; energy and environmental labelling schemes; codes of practice covering environmental claims on products and services; producer responsibility for the recovery and recycling of waste; promoting waste minimisation; voluntary agreements with industry sectors; and promoting the wider take up of environmental reporting.
As part of the wide ranging Opportunities for Change consultation on a revised UK Sustainable Development Strategy, we have just launched a Sustainable Business consultation paper. This sets out and seeks views on the particular challenges posed by sustainable development for business. A further element of the strategy, the Government's recently issued consultation paper on the waste strategy for England and Wales, Less Waste: More Value, stresses the importance of industry action to reduce the environmental impact of their waste, and seeks views on what further action is needed to encourage this.
Business is taking these matters seriously. In their Climate Change report, the Advisory Committee on Business and the Environment suggested that some form of tax on industrial energy may be necessary. In response the Government have set up a task force, chaired by the President of the CBI, Lord Marshall, to examine the role of economic instruments, such as an energy tax.
In the light of these various developments the Government will be looking across the array of measures they can deploy—regulation, voluntary agreements and economic instruments—to see what else they can do to encourage better environmental performance from business.