Partner Article

Businesses air their views in low carbon debate

BUSINESSES from across the North East were consulted on the region’s approach to low carbon initiatives yesterday at an event held by the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC).

The North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) held its Energy Policy Conference at the Quality Hotel in Boldon, at which businesses were asked for their input on NECC’s second Energy Policy Report.

NECC members and other regional organisations were given the opportunity to feed back to the Energy Policy Working Group, who will incorporate this into the final report, due to be published in December.

Last year’s report, ‘Generating Growth’, focused on the North East’s capacity for electricity generation. In contrast, the 2010 report is a private sector analysis of the challenges and opportunities presenting themselves to businesses as consumers of energy.

The conference was opened by NECC’s chief executive, James Ramsbotham. He said: “We feel that the North East has incredible potential in the field of low carbon technology, but we need to explore these opportunities from the position of consumers as well as producers.

“Holding an event like today’s allows us to gather information from our members, which we will then use to form an energy strategy for North East businesses. We will use the findings from our consultations to strengthen the case for the North East as a low carbon innovation centre at the forthcoming political party conferences.”

Attendees at the conference also heard from Jon Bird of CE Electric, Dean Harris of KPMG, Professor Dermot Roddy of the Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy, and Jon Foot from EDF Energy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .