The government made proposals for the next stage of the Energy Efficiency Commitment (under which electricity and gas suppliers were required to encourage and assist their domestic customers to make energy savings - through measures such as cavity wall and loft insulation, and energy efficient boilers, appliances and light bulbs). It proposed that the next phase of the EEC - to run from 1 April 2005 for six years - should be at about twice the level of the existing EEC.
Source: The Electricity and Gas (Energy Efficiency Obligations) Order 2004, Draft Statutory Instrument, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Draft Statutory Instrument | Explanatory notes | Statement
Date: 2004-Nov
The government announced new local authority planning guidance for renewable energy sources. Planning permission for wind farms and other renewable sources, including projects inside national parks, would be made easier to obtain. Countryside campaigners said the guidance 'seriously downplayed the inevitable negative effects on landscape and the wider countryside'.
Source: Planning Policy Statement 22: Renewable Energy, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236) | Press release 9 August 2004, Campaign to Protect Rural England (020 7981 2800)
Links: Guidance (pdf) | ODPM press release | CPRE press release | Green Alliance press release | FOE press release
Date: 2004-Aug
The Energy Act 2004 was given Royal assent. The Act was designed to promote cleaner, greener power and help meet the target of producing 10.4 per cent of the country's power through renewables by 2010.
Source: Energy Act 2004, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 13 July 2004, columns 1283-1380, TSO
Links: Text of Act | DTI press release | Hansard (third reading)
Date: 2004-Jul
The government began consultation on proposals for new controls aimed at reducing the energy consumption of new buildings by 25 per cent, and implementing a European Union directive on the energy performance of buildings.
Source: Proposals for Amending Part L & Implementing the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | ODPM press release
Date: 2004-Jul
A report said that the government needed to tackle barriers stifling the vital role of local councils in fighting climate change, if its own targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions were to be met.
Source: Roger Sykes, Sustainable Energy and Climate Change: A survey of local authorities, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000)
Links: Summary (pdf) | LGA press release
Date: 2004-Jul
A report by a committee of peers said that the government was 'on balance right' to encourage further development of renewable energy. But these sources were diffuse, and uncertainties remained over the technical feasibility and cost of converting them into electricity reliably on a sufficiently large scale. The government could fall 40 per cent short of its target of ensuring that a tenth of Britain's electricity was generated by renewable energy sources by 2010.
Source: Renewable Energy: Practicalities, Fourth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 126-I, House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
The Energy Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to promote cleaner, greener power and help meet the target of producing 10.4 per cent of the country's power through renewables by 2010.
Source: Energy Bill [HL], Department of Trade and Industry, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 10 May 2004, columns 42-126, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Hansard | HOC Library research paper (pdf)
Date: 2004-May
A report said that the government should not rule out future reliance on nuclear energy as part of a 'balanced' energy policy.
Source: Geraint Day, Energy: The policy climate, Institute of Directors (020 7766 8866)
Links: Report (pdf) | IOD press release
Date: 2004-Apr
A third reading was given to a private member's Bill designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from homes, offices and other buildings, saving energy and heating bills.
Source: Andrew Stunell MP, Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 30 April 2004, columns 1111-1145, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Hansard
Date: 2004-Apr
The government published an action plan on energy efficiency, designed to boost efforts to tackle climate change and save more than 3 billion a year on energy costs.
Source: Energy Efficiency: The government s plan for action, Cm 6168, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | DEFRA press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Apr
The government re-affirmed its commitment to the four key objectives set out in the 2003 White Paper on energy policy - cutting carbon dioxide emissions, maintaining reliable energy supplies, promoting competitive energy markets, and ensuring homes were affordably heated.
Source: Creating a Low Carbon Economy - First annual report on implementation of the energy White Paper, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Links: Report (pdf) | DEFRA press release | CPRE press release
Date: 2004-Apr
A second reading was given to a private member's Bill designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from homes, offices and other buildings, saving energy and heating bills.
Source: Andrew Stunell MP, Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 30 January 2004, columns 431-492, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Hansard
Date: 2004-Jan