§ Mr. StunellTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimates she has received of the change in energy efficiency since 1997 of(a) processing in the industrial sector, (b) heating and lighting in the industrial sector, (c) heating and lighting in the commercial sector, (d) business machinery and information control technology in the commercial sector and (e) heating and lighting in the domestic sector; and if she will make a statement. [50445]
§ Mr. MeacherIn the domestic sector our most up to date estimate of the change in overall energy efficiency is that it improved by 1 per cent. per annum over the period 1995–2000.
For industry and commerce, energy consumption statistics are collected by fuel but not by end use, so indicators are available only for overall energy consumption. No direct measure exists of "energy efficiency" changes for industry as a whole. However, changes in "energy intensity" (ie energy per unit of output) are routinely published by DTI1. These are the result of both efficiency changes and structural ones (eg from changing product mix within an industry). Estimates of changes in energy efficiency can be derived from these data and have been calculated up to 1998 for industry. Over the period 1990 to 1998, we estimate an average annual improvement in energy efficiency of about 0.6 per cent. per annum was achieved in industry.
As part of the Government response to the recent PIU Energy Review, we will consider its recommendation to establish energy efficiency indicators for each sector of the economy.
1 Energy intensity indicators for industry, commerce and a number of individual industries are given in the DTI publication "UK Energy Sector Indicators".