Improvements in the energy efficiency of UK paper mills during the two-year period 2015-16 have outstripped targets set out in the Government’s Climate Change Agreements scheme by around 38%. All 45 paper mills in the UK participate in the Government’s Climate Change Agreements (CCA) scheme where, in return for delivering energy efficiency improvements over successive two-year periods, the operating companies qualify for partial relief from the Climate Change Levy tax. The CCA scheme is administered by the Environment Agency for government and by the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) for mills.
For the most recent two-year period, 2015-16, the sector’s agreed target was to deliver a 7.05% improvement over 2008 performance (defined in terms of a specific set of energy efficiency measurements mostly related to the use of electricity). The actual improvement achieved was 9.74%, around 38% ahead of target. Andrew Large, CPI Director General, commented, “This result shows that on top of delivering very significant improvements in energy efficiency and carbon reduction since the Kyoto base year of 1990, UK papermaking energy efficiency is still improving despite the savings becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. Paper mills are investing in energy and carbon saving measures and the industry is determined to play its part in the UK meeting its climate change obligations”.
