The Director of Law, HR and Asset Management reported upon actions that had been taken to comply with the mandatory Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES). The required Footprint and the Annual Reports had been submitted via the Government Gateway by the deadlines and he presented summary reports confirming the latest submissions at appendices 1 and 2 to his report.

The Director commented that the CRCEES had a legal requirement for participating organisations to carry out regular internal audits and an Interim Internal Audit had been issued on 26 July 2011 and a Final Internal Audit had issued in October 2011. He presented the audits at appendices 3 and 4 to his report and he reported that Internal Audit had now programmed annual CRCEES audits to comply with the regulations.

The first purchase of allowances would take place between April and July 2012 after the Environment Agency had sent out the invoices and the allowance charges would be based on the emissions contained in the Annual report. A budget provision of £532,000 had been made to cover the cost based on the CRCEES guidance that was available at the time and he indicated that calculations using current guidance and including administration costs suggested the cost of CRCEES compliance would be £487,583 assuming other cost elements were not introduced by the Environment Agency. The contribution of each responsible department to the projected cost is shown below (Minute 416, Cabinet 19 March 2009 refers).

CRCEES allowance charges were based on the amount of energy consumed and therefore, if the amount of energy consumed was reduced, then so would the amount of CO² emitted and the cost. Meeting targets set under the Carbon Budget would help control the cost.

Resolved –

(1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That Cabinet notes that reducing the use of energy and meeting targets set by the Carbon Budget will reduce emissions of Carbon Dioxide that will consequently reduce the allowance the Council will have to purchase.

(3)  That Cabinet notes that reducing energy use will also minimise energy purchase costs.