British Gas announces new rates for pre-payment meter customers

Change We Can Believe In!

   Guest blog by Chris Watt, Parliamentary Affairs Adviser

The news in recent weeks has been full of the election of Barack Obama as US President, with his slogan of ???Change We Can Believe In???. Most people might find our Parliament pretty dull by comparison, unless you count the weekly spat between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg at Prime Ministers Questions, which is not at all typical of most Parliamentary proceedings.

But this week, Parliament got very exciting for us here at the Energy Saving Trust.  Two vital pieces of legislation were being debated which will have a major impact on progress towards fulfilling our mission of developing a low carbon economy, by leading 60 million citizens to act on climate change. These are the Climate Change Bill and the Energy Bill.

The Climate Change Bill is historic, the first time any country in the world has set down its carbon emissions reduction targets in law. We are delighted that the Government has set tough targets for UK emissions cuts. Home energy efficiency will play a major part in meeting these.

Firstly, the role of the energy regulator Ofgem is going to be changed to make sure that one of its priorities is encouraging a sustainable, as well as an economically viable energy market.

The second change to the original Bill, will enable the Government to introduce a feed in tariff to encourage domestic microgeneration. Over the past few months, we, along with a diverse coalition of other organisations, including Friends of the Earth, the Country Land and Business Association and the Trades Union Congress, have been calling on the Government to introduce a renewable energy, or feed in tariff.  We managed to gain cross-party support for our proposals, which were moved by Labour MP Alan Simpson and supported by both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. Indeed, at our recent Parliamentary event to promote the issue, at one point we had the Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment, Energy and Climate Change Secretary and the entire Conservative Energy and Climate Change team in the same room at once!

Although the Government did not commit to introducing a feed in tariff within a year as we had hoped, it is aiming to have one in place by April 2010. We are nonetheless delighted that Ministers have accepted our arguments that if we are to move to the large scale uptake of domestic renewable energy generation needed to meet our climate change goals, then some sort of incentive for householders is needed.

The feed in tariff amendments were carried unanimously by MPs and at the end of the day, Parliament is where important changes like this take place: changes that we, at the Energy Saving Trust, can believe in, as President Elect Obama might say!  Perhaps Parliament is not always so boring after all!

Charity partnership unveils winter campaign

British Gas Business wins a prestigious Green Apple award for Energy Efficiency and Carbon Reduction

Britain Unplugged….

Just a quick post to tell you about the recent launch of our new website - Britain Unplugged - a brand new community acting to make Britain a bit greener. It???s made up of people who care about climate change and are taking simple steps to do something about it. Britain Unplugged gives people across the UK the opportunity to take up the challenge and show others what they're doing to help. This might be recommending a green website, insulating a loft, or making their own film.

Why not visit the site, join up and check out what others are doing as well as take par in the latest challenge? You can also check out the Britain Unplugged blog and find out a bit more about our work at the Energy Saving Trust.

British Gas achieves ISO14001 certification

Energy Saving Week – part 2!

Well, I am delighted to say that our Energy Saving Week (20 – 26 October) was perhaps our best yet…well certainly if the media coverage is anything to go by! Even more so, when you consider that we were up against what seemed to be the almost perpetual coverage of the US Election and the ‘Credit Crunch’!

Anyway, for those of you not in the know this year’s theme was the `Green / Life Balance', which drew on the fact that all of us are getting busier, working harder and having less time to do the things that we want to do, and therefore struggling to find time to fit being green into our daily lives. 

To support our theme we commissioned research in which two thousand people throughout the UK and 1,000 each across France, Spain, Sweden, and Germany took part in the most comprehensive survey ever undertaken into different European countries' attitudes towards finding time to be green. What the research showed is that people in the UK and across Europe want to be green, but often work and family responsibilities just keep getting in the way.

According to the research, while Brits' desire to save money is motivating them to take energy saving measures, pressure on their time is stopping them going further to save energy and find a 'green/life balance':

Some of the key highlights of the research were that:

• Half of Brits (50 per cent) quizzed, say that they would take more steps to cut their CO2 emissions if only they had more time.
• Brits are spending around 170 million hours each year waiting on hold on the telephone, and more than 210 million hours stuck in traffic!
• Six in 10 (62 per cent) UK residents spend more than 10 minutes a week standing in queues.
• Almost half (48 per cent) Brits waste more than 10 minutes a week waiting for the kettle to boil.

And in Europe:

Almost half (46 per cent) of Spaniards spend 10 minutes a week or more taking siestas.

• Twenty-one per cent of Frenchmen and women spend more than 10 minutes a week waiting for their food to arrive in a restaurant.
• Eight in 10 (80 per cent) Germans spend at least 10 minutes every week organising their desks.

Later in the week, we issued further research, focusing on the employee angle, which showed that a third of Brits say that their job is the main reason that they do not have time to be green. But 44 per cent of employees said they would be more motivated if their employer offered some kind of a green benefit, such as loans for energy efficient products, free visits from an 'energy doctor' to tell them what they can do to save energy at home, and access to green finance products, to encourage them to live a greener lifestyle.

The end result was an avalanche of media coverage – some of which I have highlighted below:

UK

Television

Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=92463

Press

Daily Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/10/20/1-in-3-share-baths-to-cut-energy-cost-115875-20820827/

The Metro

The Daily Sport(!)

Online

GMTV website: http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=31193

GMTV website: http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=31245

Virgin:http://latestnews.virginmedia.com/news/environment/2008/10/20/brits_snuggle_up_to_cut_energy_bills_1

Yahoo: http://uk.yahoo.com/?p=us

T3: http://www.t3.com/news/lg-steam-washing-machine-green-edition?=37025

Newconsumer:http://www.newconsumer.com/news/item/ooh_la_la_brits_find_new_ways_to_be_green/

Business green: http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2228611/miliband-calls-business-promote

Fairhome: http://www.fairhome.co.uk/2008/10/21/please-save-the-planet-shower-with-a-friend/

Blogs

Islandpulse.co.uk: http://www.islandpulse.co.uk/b2/top-tips-for-energy-saving-week/

Green Ladywell: http://greenladywell.blogspot.com/2008/10/confessions-of-green-councillor.html

IES: http://blog.iesve.com/index.php/2008/10/22/happy-energy-saving-week/

How to save Energy: http://howtosaveenergy.blogspot.com/2008/10/energy-saving-week.html

Sheep Drove: http://sheepdrove.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/energy-saving-week/

Davye: http://www.dayve.co.uk/blog/2008/10/oxfam-world-food-crisis-appeal-greener.html

National Press Associations

Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=atp26YaV9.qQ&refer=uk

PA News

Scotland

Press

Daily Record: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news-feed/2008/10/20/double-bath-86908-20820809/

Scotsman: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Try-putting-on-an-eco.4607613.jp

Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/10/20/1-in-3-share-baths-to-cut-energy-cost-115875-20820827/

Guide & Gazette: http://www.guideandgazette.co.uk/latest-scottish-news/Scots-would-share-bath-to.4607725.jp

Carrick Today: http://www.carricktoday.co.uk/latest-scottish-news/Scots-would-share-bath-to.4607725.jp

Online

BBC Scotland online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/default.stm

Wales

Television

Wedi 3 – Elin Llyr appeared on Welsh magazine programme ‘Wedi 3’ Tuesday discussing energy saving gadgets and Energy Saving Week.

Radio

BBC Radio Cymru (‘Nia’ lifestyle programme) – Elin Llyr was live in the studio Monday morning discussing Energy Saving Week and ‘A’ Rated Appliances.

Press

Carmarthen Journal – A feature piece was published in Thursday’s edition of ‘Carmarthen Journal’ regarding how energy consumption has changed over the years.

Y Cymro – A feature was published in Friday’s edition of ‘Y Cymro’ regarding Glyn Wise’s support for Energy Saving Week and his top energy saving tips for students.

Northern Ireland

Television

UTV News (No. 1 Evening News Programme in NI) - Feature on sharing baths & saving energy 

Radio

BBC Radio Ulster - Interview with Noel Williams (Head of EST NI)

Citybeat - Interview with Noel Williams for evening news show

Press

Belfast Telegraph:  http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/people-in-northern-ireland-more-likely-to-share-bath-to-save-cash-14008188.html?action=Email

Belfast Telegraph - People in Northern Ireland more likely to share bath to save cash

Belfast Telegraph – Lights and Gadgets Left Switched On Costs 5m

Belfast Telegraph - Save 5m a Year by Simple Flick of a Switch

Carrick Times - Going Green Can Save Money

British Gas Business to acquire BizzEnergy customers