§ Mr. SayeedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions on industries important to the delivery of Government initiatives aimed at reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions. [90810]
§ Mr. MeacherThe UK Climate Change Programme published in November 2000 sets out the range of policy measures—regulation, economic instruments, information programmes and public expenditure—that the Government and the devolved administrations are introducing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to meet the UK's climate change targets. The measures in the Programme will deliver wider environmental, social and economic benefits. Measures to stimulate more efficient use of energy by business, for example, will help improve competitiveness. The Programme is also designed to offer incentives to industry to develop new, low carbon technologies and to exploit the growing international market for more efficient processes and renewable technologies.
The Programme includes two legislative measures that affect industry directly, each of which was subject to individual regulatory impact assessments as part of the normal policy development process. The industries affected by the legislation will include some that are important to the delivery of the policy measures in the Programme, but the Government has not produced a separate assessment of the specific impacts on them.
The first legislative measure is the EC Directive 96/61 on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC), which applies an integrated environmental approach to the regulation of certain industrial activities and, inter alia, contributes to the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases, as well asimproving the energy 554W efficiency of most of the energy intensive sectors of industry. The impact of the Directive, and the legislation implementing its requirements in England and Wales, was considered in the regulatory impact assessment published on 26 April 2000. It is available on the Defra website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/consult/ippc5/pdf/ippc5.pdf. The Directive has some impact on combined heat and power (CHP) technology, which the Government is supporting because of its high efficiency.
The second legislative measure is the energy efficiency provisions contained in Part L of the Building Regulations for England and Wales, which were amended by the Building (Amendment) Regulations 2001. The aim is to improve the energy performance of all types of building, including those used for industrial and commercial purposes, to reduce energy use and therefore emissions of carbon dioxide. The Building Regulations are the responsibility of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The amendments came into force on 1 April 2002. A regulatory impact assessment for the Regulations was published by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (now the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) when the Regulations were made. It is available on the ODPM website at http://www.safety.odpm.gov.uk/bregs/brpub/ria/ria-01/index.htm. I understand that, in accordance with normal practice, the Office intends to investigate how the amended Regulations are being implemented around 2004, when there is a sufficient sample of works compliant with the new requirements.