Waste from Energy Plant - Planning Struggle.

Proposals for 500 waste management plants will struggle to negotiate the planning system without incentives to communities, a parliamentary group said this week.

The UK is committed to diverting waste from landfill under European legislation, prompting the demand for new infrastructure by 2020. Following a five-month inquiry, the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group said achieving permission "remains an acute challenge for the waste sector".

It called for fresh thinking on consultation to turn infrastructure planning into a win-win proposition. It cites the example of Europe, "where waste management has become associated with delivering social benefits".

It wants incentives imbedded in planning for infrastructure, with communities offered discounts on their energy bills or allowed to own waste plants to pave the way for their development.

The group urged the waste industry to consider the model of community-owned wind farms, which share the profits from electricity sold to the national grid.

It added that community funds tied to waste contracts and operated through a committee offer a more flexible way of delivering planning gain than section 106 agreements and the community infrastructure levy.

Europe's low-carbon vision requires more integrated climate policy.

European governments must incorporate climate change more fully into policy if they are to tackle it successfully, according to a new report published this month.

Climate change issues must be "better integrated" into general and specific policy, including planning, taxation, transportation and annual budgets, says the report published by the Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER).

Professor Dr Pat Nuttall, director of the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, which chairs PEER, wrote in his foreword to the report called Climate Policy Integration, Coherence and Governance: "Policy makers need to place greater emphasis on climate-related issues than is currently the case in the planning and execution of general and sector specific policies.

"Annual budgets, impact assessments and spatial planning are examples of existing measures that should integrate climate concerns to a greater extent than they currently do."

The report says more comprehensive government policy will result in the "necessary changes" in production processes and consumption patterns to tackle climate change.

Lead author Dr Per Mickwitz, of the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), said, "Although the inclusion of climate change mitigation and adaptation in general governmental programmes and strategies has substantially increased in recent years, much more is needed in terms of integrating climate issues into specific policy measures."

The report looks at the degree of climate policy integration at national and local levels in six European countries, including the UK, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

It sets out ways to boost integration and improve what it calls "policy coherence" to ensure climate change is given more political weight.
"The extent to which climate change issues are considered and integrated into existing policy fields is therefore a key issue to be tackled in the future," the report says.

"Furthermore, if European societies are to become low-carbon societies, and if their ability to adapt to a changing climate is to be enhanced, then the coherence between these policies and climate policy aims should be increased. If the low-carbon vision is to be achieved, it requires a comprehensive climate policy."

The report gives examples of the benefits of better climate policy.

Where previously climate change has "largely been perceived just in terms of restrictions and limitation on economic activity", many countries are now redefining it in terms of "innovation possibilities, business opportunities and potential profits" and better policy can maximise that potential, it says.

PEER is made up of seven of Europe's biggest environmental research institutes. To read the full report, click here

Feed-In Tariffs receive muted welcome

Plans to reward eco-friendly householders for the green energy that their solar panels produce have received a muted welcome.

The clean energy cashback plan, known as "feed-in tariffs", offers incentives from April for those who install small scale renewables on their homes. The government claims one in 10 homeowners could fit panels or small wind turbines by 2020.But the scheme has been criticised as not generous enough.

Payments

The UK gets about 5.5% of its electricity from renewable sources and, in order to hit green targets in 10 years' time, this would have to rise to 30%. Under the programme, people will be paid a fixed rate by their energy provider for electricity from small renewable power sources. They could also save money on their bills.

Homeowners who install photovoltaic panels could earn £900 a year when they first put in the technology, along with saving £140 a year on their bills, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said.

Renewable energy groups suggest people will have a 5% to 8% rate of return on their initial green investment for up to 25 years, although this technology remains relatively expensive to install.

Solar panels and wind turbines of up to five megawatts will be paid for the electricity they generate, even if the homeowners used it themselves.

"The feed-in tariff will change the way householders and communities think about their future energy needs, making the payback for investment far shorter than in the past," said Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

However, the cost of the scheme will come from higher charges for other customers who do not fit renewable energy sources. The typical customer will face an extra £11 on their annual bill by 2020, DECC said.

'Lack of incentive'

While many consumer groups have welcomed the move, they have also criticised the level of incentive payments provided under the scheme.

"Ministers have been far too timid with a policy that could make a significant contribution to cutting emissions and boosting energy security," said Dave Timms, of Friends of the Earth.

The Solar Trade Association said the rate of return was half of that seen under other schemes.

And Liz Laine, of watchdog Consumer Focus, said that the scheme could help people make big savings and cut carbon emissions, but more ambitious targets were needed from the government.

"It needs to offer more attractive cashback rates to overcome the cost-barrier of installing this technology and provide better information and advice to consumers," she said.

Proposals for a second incentive scheme for renewable heat, which will pay people to install technology such as ground source heat pumps and biomass boilers, have also been published. Details will be published in the 2010 Budget.