Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006

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The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006[1]
Long title An Act to make provision about the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases, the alleviation of fuel poverty, the promotion of microgeneration and the use of heat produced from renewable sources, compliance with building regulations relating to emissions of greenhouse gases and the use of fuel and power, the renewables obligation relating to the generation and supply of electricity and the adjustment of transmission charges for electricity; and for connected purposes.
Citation 2006 c 19
Dates
Royal assent 21 June 2006
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

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 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[2] was seen as a disappointment by many commentators [3]. In contrast, the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act has been viewed as a positive step.[3]

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.[4]
  • 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. ↑ The citation of this Act by this short title is authorised by section 29(1) of this Act.
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ [2].
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Media

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