17 July 2012

Government sets deadline for new companies to participate in the amended Climate Change Agreements

The BPIF have been informed that new companies will have to register by August 17th in order to guarantee receiving the Climate Change Levy discount from April 2013. Existing scheme members do not need to reapply but will be automatically enrolled.

The new scheme, which extends the discounts until 2023, offers printing companies a 90% reduction of the climate change levy on electricity and a 65% reduction on gas.

From April 2013 the levy will increase to 0.524 pence per kWh for electricity and 0.182 pence per kWh for gas. This means that a company using 1m kWh of electricity would be able to save £4,716 a year for the life of the scheme and one using 1m kWh of gas could save £1,183 a year.

In order to do this a printing company needs to join the scheme run by the BPIF and commit to energy efficiency improvement targets, which if reached will further reduce energy costs. However if for any reason a company fails to reach its target, there is no financial penalty other than losing the discount. These companies will have a choice, they either purchase the necessary CO2 allowances to stay on the scheme, or leave the scheme. There is no claw back of the levy discount already received.

Steve Walker, who manages the BPIF's Climate Change Levy Reduction Scheme said, 'The BPIF has worked extremely hard to ensure the printing industry retained the levy discount which had been under threat and is worth over £5 million annually to the industry. The old scheme has been closed to new members since October 2009, and now its open again it's a great opportunity for larger energy users to save thousands of pounds each year. Not only that but it also exempts them from participating in the expensive CRC energy efficiency scheme'.

There is a charge for the scheme, which varies according to a companies turnover and whether the company is a BPIF member, so if you feel your company would benefit from the scheme please contact Steve Walker.