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1240/5(3211)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 27th FEBRUARY 2007
Question 1
Has the Minister investigated what costs and energy savings are involved in the installation of the following energy saving actions for the average household -
S m a l l windmill S o la r power
C a v it y insulation
and, if so, could he provide details for members? What concrete support, if any, does his department plan for any of these initiatives in the Annual Business Plan for 2008?
Answer
The Deputy will be aware of the ongoing work on Energy Policy which I will bring to the States later this year, including the type of detail that the Deputy requests in his question. As part of the research for this policy work, my Department are evaluating various types of energy efficiency measures and also microgeneration technologies for the contribution they would make towards carbon reduction targets.
The extent of Jersey's carbon reduction targets will be a matter to be debated within the energy policy when it is bought forward for adoption. This will in turn allow us to assess what levels of support for energy efficiency and microgeneration technology are necessary, cost-effective and appropriate.
It is clear that the most important and effective investment will be through improved household insulation as this reduces demand thereby saving energy and reducing heating costs in one action. An additional advantage is that it requires relatively lower initial investment and has a shorter payback period. Not all houses can receive cavity wall insulation and other measures such as roof insulation, draft proofing and double glazing also need to be considered.
Once demand for energy is reduced as far as possible by better insulation (and in the longer term by better buildings) we can look at further ways of reducing our use of energy and decreasing associated carbon emissions. Micro generation techniques such as solar thermal water heating, micro wind generation and photo voltaic cells may have a part to play in further reducing carbon emissions but the return on investment is much slower and so these would not be measures given early priority in a support programme. In addition, when considering carbon dioxide production, it has to be remembered that Jersey's electricity supply is very low carbon already and so displacing it with micro generation would deliver little reduction in carbon.
Funding to support energy efficiency initiatives will come from the proposed introduction of environmental taxes.
Details of the environmental tax options are being released for public consultation on 28th February but I can say now that this will include a proposal for significant funding to be allocated from revenues raised by such taxation
towards energy efficiency measures.
Question 2
Would the Minister inform members of the current and future costs of the Eco-Active campaign including the postage and packaging costs of sending out free pencils and badges to a wide number of recipients? Would he state which budget these costs come from and whether he is satisfied that such actions are ecologically justified?
Answer
ECO-ACTIVE is a major new initiative to help people in Jersey to make environmentally conscious decisions. It has already generated a tremendous response both from the public and corporate sector. Specifically, 10,000
people attended the launch at the Planet Jersey event between the 9-12th February. Islanders have made over 1,800 pledges to improve their environmental performance. Furthermore there have been nearly 30,000 hits on
the website since the launch. This gives us further confidence that it can and will make a real difference to Jersey's environmental performance.
Resources are two fold; from my Department and from the generous sponsorship we have received. The programme has and will be managed within current departmental resources plus whatever can be achieved through continued sponsorship. To date sponsorship has amounted to £24,000 relating to the development and launch of ECO-ACTIVE and the related Planet Jersey event. £14,000 was received from HSBC and £10,000 from the Ecology Fund. Furthermore 30 HSBC staff members gave their time to assist with the launch at ECO- ACTIVE and Planet Jersey. The Jersey Evening Post are partners in this project and their staff have also devoted considerable time to promoting the aims of ECO-ACTIVE. I anticipate continuing sponsorship in the future which will allow us to expand the programme.
To raise awareness of the campaign and the ECO-ACTIVE website some sponsorship money was used to purchase pencils and badges. These were distributed by hand at the Planet Jersey event and from our sponsor's offices. The only postage incurred was to send samples of these promotional materials to all States members which I did at my own expense.
The promotional pencils are made from recycled materials. The pencils and badges were purchased from companies whose ethical and environmental performance is viewed as robust by other bodies such as the World Wildlife Fund.
We will shortly be distributing free ECO-ACTIVE badges to most of Jersey's schoolchildren. Furthermore in a couple of weeks we will be distributing free ECO-ACTIVE pencils to all Jersey schoolchildren as a partnership with the Education Department.
I am delighted with the initial success of ECO-ACTIVE and am certain that the resources applied are justified.