Chamber and committees

A key goal of the UK Energy White paper is to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions by some 60% by around 2050 with significant progress by 2020. This will build on the UK’s existing goal of moving towards a 20% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2010. The Executive is committed to making a full contribution to these goals and is party to the UK Government’s Energy Efficiency Implementation Plan whichsets out a UK strategy for meeting the Energy White Paper’s Objectives. Energy Efficiency will play a key role in achieving these goals.

The Executive has a number of energy efficiency measures in place which reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as detailed in the Scottish Climate Change Programme. The Executive is reviewing the programme and will start consultation on this shortly. The need for additional targets, strategies, and measures will be considered as a part of that review.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11811, S2W-11820, both answered 10 November 2004 and S2W-11975 answered 18 November 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Executive has introduced a variety of initiatives to accelerate the uptake of energy efficiency measures in the domestic, business and public sectors. Details of the financial support provided for each and the outputs, where available, are as follows:

Central Heating Programme

Since 2001, the Executive has spent nearly £116 million on the central heating programme; which addresses both fuel poverty and energy efficiency. To date, this has provided central heating systems to nearly 43,000 homes. In the first full year for which figures are available, i.e. 2002-03, the predicted annual reduction in CO₂ emissions from the central heating programme was 30,710 tonnes.

Warm Deal

Since 1999, the Executive has spent £55 million on the Warm Deal, another joint fuel poverty/energy efficiency measure. To date this scheme has insulated 200,000 homes. For 2002-03, the predicted annual reduction in CO₂ emissions from Warm Deal was 29,949 tonnes.

Special Projects Fund

In 2003-04 the Executive provided funding of £175,000 to the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to support domestic demonstration, pilot or research projects which address energy efficiency issues. The aim of this fund is to enable the EST to develop ways of extending energy efficiency into new areas and produce approaches which address issues of particularly importance to Scotland. For example, in the private rented sector assistance has been provided to 224 households to implement energy efficiency measures, directly benefiting an estimated 500 customers to date.

Regional Business Manager Network

The Executive provides annual funding of circa £240,000 for six regional business managers in Scotland. The network acts as a local sales and marketing force to enable Scottish business and the public sector to identify energy, carbon and financial savings by encouraging them to take up energy efficiency programmes offering free energy audits, and other support schemes, such as Loan Action Scotland etc (see below). The output of this activity is measured in terms of the increasing take up of these programmes and the financial and emissions potential identified.

Loan Action Scotland (LAS)

Since its launch in 1999, LAS has awarded over 80 loans totalling £1.26 million. It is estimated since its inception this funding initiative has produced lifetime savings of 14,250 tonnes of carbon, financial savings of £3.59 million and energy savings of 194 GWh.

Public Sector Energy Efficiency Initiative

The Executive is providing significant funding of £20 million to the public sector over the next two years to make capital investment in energy efficiency measures. This initiative aims to deliver up to a 20% reduction in energy consumption by local authorities and Scottish Water, and up to a 15% reduction by health boards over five years.

The Energy Saving Trust (EST)

EST runs a variety of programmes which promote energy efficiency to the domestic sector, local authorities and other social landlords. It also works with suppliers of energy efficiency goods and services. Funding for these programmes is provided by the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office (SEEO), part of ETLLD, which has supplied a budget of £3.57 million in 2004-05, with additional funding of £117,000 from the Housing Division.

A key EST programme is the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre (EEAC) programme which funds 8 Scottish EEACs covering the whole of Scotland, as part of a UK network of 52 centres. The centres provide to householders a range of independent, individually tailored advice on energy efficiency and renewables.The centres are heavily used and cost-effective. In 2003-4 there were 90,000 Scottish EEAC domestic clients and the advice given to them led to estimated lifetime savings of 100,000 tonnes of carbon at a cost of £1.108 million.

The Carbon Trust UK Energy Efficiency Programme

The Executive has committed a budget of £4.2 million for Carbon Trust activities in 2004-05. In 2003-04, it identified total potential carbon savings of circa 220,000 tonnes and £14 million of potential financial savings to business and the public sector.

This type of report is not normally subject to publication. I will, however, make a copy available in the Parliament Resource Centre after we have fulfilled our commitment to consult the North East Scotland Transport Partnership on the report’s conclusions.

Scottish Enterprise has recently made available £150 million to the Energy Intermediary Technology Institute, to encourage and support the development of emerging technologies, including hydrogen fuel technology.

The Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland (FREDS) is assessing the current status of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies within Scotland, and will  identify opportunities for Scotland within the supply chain for these technologies.  Their findings will be published in Spring 2005.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Second Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) Progress Report, which covers the period April 1999 to March 2001, shows that eight local authorities have appointed a dedicated HECA Officer. Five local authorities, namely, Angus, Falkirk, Fife, Moray, and West Lothian, have dedicated fuel poverty officers.  South Ayrshire is currently recruiting one.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to reply. Her response is as follows.

The following local authorities have not submitted a fuel poverty strategy or any fuel poverty information for assessment by Communities Scotland:

Aberdeenshire

Dumfries and Galloway

East Ayrshire

Midlothian

North Ayrshire

Scottish Borders

Shetland Islands

South Lanarkshire

Western Isles

 

These local authorities have been asked to prepare a fuel poverty strategy.

Direct Research and Development funding for renewables projects is carried out at UK level by Westminster and the budget is held by the Department of Tradeand Industry. There are no published figures for the uptake of its various researchand development funding schemes in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive is also targeting investment at the development of emergingtechnologies. Our contribution of £2.125 million towards the capital cost ofdeveloping the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney will enable greatstrides to be made in developing nascent marine technology. We are alsoinvesting, through Scottish Enterprise, £150 million over 10 years in theEnergy Intermediary Technology Institute in Aberdeen, which will focus on research and development for emerging and innovative technologies.

The Scottish Executive produces two annual estimates of farm income, Net Farm Income (NFI) for individual farm types and Total Income from Farming (TIFF)for the agricultural sector as a whole. Both sets of figures take account of thecosts of fuel, fertiliser and general expenses incurred by farmers. Figures forprevious years may be viewed on the Executive website: www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/agriculture. The next set of estimates will be published in January 2005.

In our spending proposals for 2005-08, Building a Better Scotland, we announced our target that by 2008 all pensioner households eligible for pension credit will meet the energy efficiency components of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. We will announce the programmes that will deliver that target shortly.