Speaking to the Grand Committee yesterday, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Energy & Climate Change, Baroness Verma, said that a number of changes to the CRC, including the abolition of the CRC Performance League Table, will “radically” reduce administrative costs and make it less of a bureaucratic burden.

Verma said the Government had listened to the concerns of the 2700 large businesses and public sector organisations participating in the scheme and who represent around 10% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

“We listened to the concerns of CRC participants, which fell into three broad categories. The rules of CRC were too complex, difficult to understand and costly for participants to administer. The CRC overlapped with other policies and it forced those to participate in ways which do not accommodate their natural business energy management structures and processes,” she said.

However, Verma was asked by the Ground Committee that although considerable administrative costs have been highlighted in the CRC memorandum there has been little mention of the carbon emissions reductions that may result from the simplification of the scheme.

The minister said the simplified scheme would provide flexibility to industry and allow them to organise the scheme “how they see fit” within their businesses. However, she did not draw on how the memorandum did not provide details on the carbon reductions resulting from the simplification.

Verma explained that the CRC scheme will be closely monitored to ensure it meets the needs of industry and that a review in 2016 will be carried out.

Leigh Stringer

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