The Climate Change and Sustainable
Energy Act 2006 (c.19) is an Act of the Parliament of
the United Kingdom
which aims to boost the number of heat and electricity
microgeneration installations in the
United Kingdom, so helping to cut carbon emissions and reduce fuel poverty.
The Act,
which received Royal Assent on June 21,
2006, was piloted through the House of Commons
as a Private
Member's Bill by Mark
Lazarowicz, MP.
The Rt Hon
Eric Forth MP, a well known
opponent of Private Members' Bills who often fillibustered them in
Parliament, died during the passage of this bill through
Parliament, after having prolonged the debate during
Third
Reading and
Report
for a number of days.
Microgeneration in the United Kingdom
Microgeneration technologies are
seen as having considerable potential by the Government.
Microgeneration involves the local production of electricity by
homes and businesses from low-energy sources including small scale
wind turbines,
ground source heat pumps and
solar electricity
installations.
The Government's own microgeneration strategy was launched in March
2006 was seen as a disappointment by many commentators
[325916]. In contrast, the Climate Change and
Sustainable Energy Act has been viewed as a positive step
The Act
The principal measures in the act are to:
- require the Secretary of State (DEFRA
) to report
annually on greenhouse gas emissions during the year plus steps
taken to cut them;
- require local authorities to
take into account the content of a new 'energy measures report'
that the Secretary of State will be required to publish within one
year from the signing of the Act;
- require the Secretary of State to set national microgeneration
targets no later than 31 March 2009;
- require the Secretary of State to expand the annual reports
on progress towards sustainable energy aims (under the
Sustainable Energy Act
2003), to include:
- progress in meeting the microgeneration targets;
- progress in meeting the target (under the
Housing Act 2004) for the
energy efficiency of residential accommodation in England
;
- progress in meeting the target (under the Housing Act 2004) for
the emissions of carbon dioxide in England;
- progress in meeting the target (under the Housing Act 2004) for
the number of households in which one or more persons are
living in fuel poverty;
- things done to promote community energy projects;
- things done to promote the use of heat from renewable
sources.
- give the Secretary of State the power to impose a duty on
energy companies to buy energy from microgeneration schemes, if the
industry fails to create a voluntary scheme within one year.
- introduce a statutory review that, it is hoped, may change
permitted development orders
to allow certain domestic microgeneration without the need for
planning permission. A
consultation period on the proposed changes ends on June 27,
2007.
- make changes to the Building
Regulations to:
- include microgeneration within their scope;
- increasing to two years the time limit for prosecuting
contraventions of the Building Regulations relating to energy use,
energy conservation or carbon emissions;
- require the Secretary of State to report on compliance with
these aspects of the Building Regulations and steps proposed to
increase compliance.
Microgeneration technologies
For the purposes of the Act, microgeneration technologies include:
See also
References
- [1]
- [2].
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