UK businesses will face a £1.4 billion bill for carbon credits by April 2011, according to research presented at a recent business carbon and energy summit in London.

The event was hosted by IMServ, a UK-based carbon and energy consultancy and part of the Invensys Group.

“We expect retail and manufacturing businesses to be most affected by the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) demands, and obviously these are two sectors that have been badly hit by the recession, so the CRC understandably remains a concern for certain businesses,” said Steve Brown, managing director of IMServ, which commissioned the research. “What’s vital is that businesses start preparing themselves now to reduce the imminent financial impacts.”

“We’re seeing a far greater awareness of the Carbon Reduction Commitment within the business community, but organisations need to start budgeting for these allowances and formulating their carbon strategies now, particularly in light of the recession,” added Jon Lane from Datamonitor, which conducted the research. “Those that sit on their hands and complain will end up paying more in the long term.”

During the summit, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone also called for Government and businesses to move beyond rhetoric and take quicker action to tackle climate change.

“With every prediction that climate change issues will continue, everybody, business and Government included, is going to have to move much faster to change the way they operate and this conference is an excellent step in that direction,” Livingstone said.

“Record energy prices and a huge increase in ‘green’ legislation means that carbon and energy issues have gone from being a peripheral problem to a business-critical boardroom issue,” Brown added. “The Government’s recent Budget announcement, with its £375-million focus on funding for carbon and energy saving initiatives gives the clearest signal yet to UK businesses that carbon and energy saving is high on the Government’s agenda and an issue that is not going to go away.”

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