What it is: Legislation for the Carbon Reduction Commitment – now called the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme – have been laid before Parliament. The Department for Energy and Climate Change is leading the way on CRC, which is due to come into effect in April.
When it came out: 22 January 2010
Why it is important: The Carbon Reduction Commitment is due to become law on 1 April 2010. Businesses that use at least 5,000 MWh of energy each year, measured on half-hourly meters, are due to be covered by the emissions …

The least energy efficient buildings are to be phased out under new government plans that came to light this week.
Last week, the government responded to the first annual report of its green adviser the Committee on Climate Change. It said that government would consult early in 2010 on a policy to introduce Display Energy Certificates into all commercial buildings.
This would extend the current policy, where all publicly owned buildings are required to have the certificates. It said it would use this information to phase out G rated buildings – the …

A coalition of local authorities and other public sector bodies has named Leeds, Liverpool and Sussex as trial areas for planning strategies to cut energy waste.
Today, the Low Emissions Strategies Partnership – whose management board includes representatives from Greenwich, Sheffield and Wigan councils – named three partners it would work with on Low Emissions Strategies: they are Sussex, Liverpool City Region and Leeds City Region.
Low Emissions Strategies are intended to spread best practise about using the planning system to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
The Sussex Air Quality Partnership and Lewes District …

Planners should take the lead in UK efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and buildings, says guidance from the government launched today.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the government-sponsored Low Emissions Strategies Partnership said in their 35-page report Low Emissions Strategies Good Practice Guidance that councils should put into place a low emissions strategy. It said planners should help reduce carbon dioxide emissions from building and transport.
The guidance sets out examples of best practice. John Paterson, chair of the Low Emissions Strategy Partnership Board, …

The government wants to overhaul the Code for Sustainable Homes to make it easier for homeowners to understand how energy efficient their homes are.
Today, housing and planning minister launched a plan to make the code simpler. He said government would remove the bureaucracy of becoming rated under the system; would more closely align the code to the government’s target of making all new homes zero carbon by 2016; and take account of the difficulty of balancing sustainability with other pressures on housebuilders.
Healey said changing the system would help consumers understand …

The government should put more pressure on the companies it works with if it wants to cut its carbon emissions, a report on the government has advised.
On Wednesday, independent charity the Carbon Disclosure Project published a 44-page study “CDP Public Procurement Report for the UK Government”. It said government suppliers were not doing enough to understand their carbon dioxide emissions, and those that had set targets fell short of the government aims to cut carbon emissions 34% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
It also reported that suppliers in the property …