The UK glass manufacturing sector has successfully completed its second Climate Change Agreement Milestone Year with an improvement in efficiency of 11% in terms of MWh/tonne glass-packed from its bas…
The UK glass manufacturing sector has successfully completed its second Climate Change Agreement Milestone Year with an improvement in efficiency of 11% in terms of MWh/tonne glass-packed from its base year position, according to trade federation British Glass. This compares against the “Milestone 2” target of 6%. In 2001, the UK glass manufacturing sector voluntarily entered a “Climate Change Agreement“ (CCA) with the government. In return for taking on and meeting challenging energy efficiency targets, members of the agreement receive 80% relief from the Climate Change Levy (CCL), an energy consumption based tax introduced to promote energy savings in industry and commerce. The glass sector agreements are overseen by British Glass. Under the CCA, targets are held for 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010, representing an approximate saving of 13% across the life of the agreement against the glass sector“s 1999 base year performance. “Energy represents a significant cost to the glass industry, and as such glass manufacturers have for many years paid close attention to improving energy efficiency and minimising costs. In this context the Climate Change Agreements are now an integral part of the ongoing business process to improve energy performance”, said John Stockdale, British Glass“ Environmental Manager. He added: “The glass sector can once again proudly report significant gains in energy efficiency. It also shows that it has gone a long way towards decoupling production from environmental impact, reducing energy and CO2 emissions”.