Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to reduce industrial energy costs.

There remains significant potential for business to reduce energy costs and improve competitiveness by improving energy efficiency. Policies such as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme and the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) encourage energy efficiency in business.

For energy intensive sectors, voluntary Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) allow up to 90% reduction from the Climate Change Levy (CCL) in return for signing up to stretching energy efficiency improvement targets agreed with Government. In addition, the Government has put in place a significant package of compensation for energy intensive industries for the indirect impacts of energy and climate change policies on their electricity costs (the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), Carbon Price Floor, Renewables Obligation and small scale Feed in Tariffs) as well as an exemption from the costs of Contracts for Difference.