The government has downplayed new figures revealing the extent to which businesses are being hit by climate change policies, insisting it is putting support measures in place to soften the blow.
New analysis by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), published today, shows policies such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), EU Emissions Trading System and carbon floor price will add between 15 to 21 per cent on to medium-sized energy users’ bills in 2013.
This rises to between one and 14 per cent for large energy intensive firms, depending on how much electricity they generate on site.
However, DECC added that the contribution to total costs would be less than one per cent, given that the average manufacturer spends only three per cent of their budgets on energy, compared to 18 per cent on employees.
Click here to read the full story.
