The Next Decade of the Climate Change Act

17 December 2018

As a decade of the Climate Change Act approaches it is an appropriate time to reflect on all the good that this ground-breaking Act has brought. But, even more importantly a time to plan for the future by seeing how we can continue to save and the ongoing requirement ahead of businesses.

The effort required, particularly by industry to reduce carbon emissions has brought a great sense of responsibility to businesses many of whom have radicalised their business practices to conform. It comes as no surprise that the development in technology over the past 10 years has gone a long way to help with the reduction of emissions. A big part of the reduction has been the implementation of forward-thinking and smart technology.

The Committee on Climate Change noted that: “UK emissions have continued to fall since the Climate Change Act was passed in 2008. In 2017, the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions were 43% below 1990 levels, while the economy grew by two-thirds over the same period. This means the UK will have met the first two carbon budgets (2008-12 and 2013-17) and is on track to meeting the third (2018-22)”.

However, there is still a long way to go! Many say that the next 10 years are critical and we face our biggest challenges yet to ensure emissions continue to reduce. The attitude towards reducing emissions has clearly shifted in the right direction and is now at the forefront of business practices, however, what does the future hold for continued carbon emissions reduction?

We believe that the answer lies in the continued advancement of and the subsequent adoption of technology and future thinking by businesses.

Heating and cooling alone in buildings and industry account for 50% of the EUs annual energy consumption. Connected buildings and using data to drive informed business decision making with accurate IoT technology has aided in the ability to meet the Climate Change Act by reducing emissions.

But this can go further. The introduction of smart technology and data has been key to meeting targets when integrated and operated together with efficiency in mind.

Our CODA solution streamlines processes, improves efficiency and supports predictive maintenance while also boosting energy efficiency and cost savings. CODA’s ability to connect with a multitude of devices across an estate provides full visibility and data-driven insights and analytics, improving operations. It delivers substantial, speedy, tangible business benefits from energy to financial savings, maintenance and operational performance to precise billing of multiple tenants.

From our experience, retailers can see a 20-30% reduction in energy costs by managing consumption around key times of day (particularly when the tariffs are greatest and when grid demand is at a peak). Also identifying, fixing and amending where waste-consumption is happening – this is often prevalent in equipment being left on at night, and also poorly performing and maintained equipment. Retailers should expect to see a ROI as soon as six months and at most within two years with recurring savings year on year with the CODA solution.

The Energy Data Taskforce, launched by the government and Ofgem in Oct’18 is set to hold more hope for the future. It will deliver recommendations for how industry and the public sector can work together on behalf of the energy sector. The aim of the task force is to reduce costs and facilitate competition, innovation and new business models in the energy sector, through improving data availability and transparency.

It is with technology and collaboration that the opportunity can be realised. By identifying waste and implementing automated energy efficiency technologies, carbon reduction can be a reality moving into the next decade and beyond.