With just over a month to go until the deadline for registration for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, recent reports suggest that less than a third of organisations who qualify for the scheme have actually registered. Missing the deadline of 30 September will mean an immediate £5000 fine and £500 for each day after that up to a maximum of £45,000.
The CRC only applies to any company or public sector organisation that consumes more than 6000 megawatt hours of energy a year. It specifically focuses on energy use, not overall CO2 emissions, so isn’t something that will directly affect fleets and transport.
However, one piece of legislation that will directly affect fleets is the Climate Change Act. The Act was introduced in 2008 and sets a legally binding target of at least an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as well as a reduction in emissions of at least 34% by 2020.
While at the moment, companies are not legally obliged to report their greenhouse gas emissions, the Climate Change Act requires the Government to make it mandatory for all businesses to report their CO2 emissions by 6 April 2012 or report to Parliament why they have chosen not to. Rather than waiting to see if this actually happens, it is important that fleets act now to review their fleet and fuel policies.
With the CRC already here and possible Climate Change Act reporting requirements from 2012, environmental taxes are a reality and will only become more, not less, stringent. If businesses take action to start reducing CO2 emissions now, then they will have already made significant progress by April 2012. Taking action to improve the environmental performance of your fleet and taking more control of fuel use makes sound financial as well as environmental sense.
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