§ Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the renegotiation of agreed energy saving 1487W targets contained in the climate change levy; and what assessment she has made of the effects on the future competitiveness of UK salt manufacturers. [172941]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Climate Change Agreements are agreements with energy intensive industry through which participants pay a reduced rate of climate change levy in return for meeting challenging energy efficiency targets between 2002 and 2010. The agreements require that DEFRA review the sector targets in both 2004 and 2008 to ensure that all future milestone targets continue to represent the potential for cost effective energy savings, taking account of any changes in technical or market circumstances.
Targets are to be renegotiated with DEFRA at sector level and each sector association is then responsible for proposing how that sector target variation will be applied to underlying agreements. Negotiations with sector associations are now under way. There has been no assessment of the effects on UK salt manufacturers. Sector associations are able to put forward any information regarding changes to market circumstances in the course of these negotiations, and to take into account issues of competitiveness in proposing the variations to be made to underlying targets.