Sarah Pearce's Archive 
Sarah Pearce
This week I’ve been over in San Francisco taking part in the IPPR’s US learning exchange on green jobs. There are 14 of us from a range of organisations, social enterprises, environmental and social justice organisations and trade unions finding out how forming alliances can lead to the creation of green jobs. So what have we discovered?
Sarah Pearce
UK businesses are wasting billions of pounds every year. These are the findings from a Carbon Trust report published this week. The report, The Business of Energy Efficiency, by the Carbon Trust’s Advisory Service says that finance directors in large businesses are undervaluing the financial returns from energy saving by over a half.
Energy saving measures, such as upgrades to heating and lighting, energy policies and staff training could be saving businesses at least £1.6bn every year. I’ll just repeat that last bit, it’s important … Every Year.
Sarah Pearce
Last night saw the launch event for 2011’s Climate Week. Climate Week runs from 21 – 27 March and is a national attempt to highlight climate action being taken in workplaces and communities across Britain.
Its main focus is encouraging people to take practical action through the networks they are involved in – workplaces, schools, communities. The plan is for businesses, charities and voluntary organisations, councils, schools and others to run events during Climate Week, showcasing what can be achieved, sharing ideas and encouraging others to get active throughout the year.
Sarah Pearce
Slipping beneath the CSR headlines is a new carbon tax on large companies and public sector organisations.
The CSR has introduced a fundamental change to the way the Carbon Reduction Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES) will run. The CRCEES is basically a cap-and-trade scheme covering approximately 3000 large energy users in the public and private sector. Prior to today, all revenue raised by the annual sale or auction of allowances in the CRCEES, was set to be “recycled” back to scheme participants – a positive incentive to reduce emissions. The more you reduce emissions, the bigger the proportion of the overall revenue raised from the scheme gets handed back to you.
But this is all set to change with revenue raised being handed straight over to the Treasury and used to shore up the public finances. It’s expected to generate £715 million in 2010/11 rising to around £1billion once allowances are capped in April 2013. How much of this will be set aside for investment in environmental measures (if any) is anyone’s guess. No guarantees have been given.
