A cross-departmental body similar in scope to WRAP is needed in order to bring leadership on driving investment in renewable energy and waste technology, according to former Biffa director Dr Peter Jones.
Dr Jones, who is now chairman of energy company Waste2Tricity, said different government departments including BIS, Defra, DCLG and DECC currently had responsibilities for different areas of the waste and energy sector, which was causing a paralysis through lack of consistent policy and leadership.
His comments came during an evidence session at the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee yesterday (January 7). The committee is currently investigating how to encourage investment in turning waste into valuable products or energy.
Dr Jones told the committee: I am naive enough to think that we might be able to establish a single, core entity to get a grip on this cross-departmental area where none of the individual departments sees this back-end economy this immense waste of resources as a key issue.
There are conflicting economic signals and I think you have the opportunity to draw breath and go back to basics.
He explained that an equivalent of a Super WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) bringing together the views of research bodies, the investment community and supply chains could assist in speeding up the UKs progress towards a resource efficient economy
He added: We dont need a new department, we just need a sub-ministerial team.
Energy subsidies
Dr Peter Jones, chairman of Waste2Tricity
Furthermore, Dr Jones slammed totally discordant and contradictory subsidies which he said were not needed to drive investment in renewable energy, adding that the government was just spraying money at energy opportunities.
The government offers a number of subsidies and incentives for renewable energy technologies, such as Renewable Obligations Certificates (ROCs), the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and Feed in Tariffs (FiTs).
Dr Jones added: We need to stand back and go back to sound science and hard data. Many of these subsidies are completely laughable in terms of their alleged relationship to environmental benefits, specifically around CO2 reduction. They are just not logical.
Elsewhere, Dr Jones highlighted the success of the introduction of the landfill tax as an example of a policy which has provided clarity to investors in the waste sector and helped to drive growth, adding that similar leadership was needed from government to drive investment in waste-to-energy projects.
Unlike many other policies and subsidies for renewable energy, the terrific benefit of the landfill tax was that there was a clear, consistent message from government that it would continue until 2015, he said.
Rob Wylie
Also giving evidence at the session was Rob Wylie, the co-director and chairman of renewable energy investor WHEB Partners, who agreed with Dr Jones about subsidies, commenting that he would never invest in a company that is dependent on government subsidies for its economic viability.
He also told the committee that there was an uncoordinated framework in the UK at the moment and that the government needs to take a lead role in directing, but it doesnt have to provide the money necessarily.
Mr Wylie added: Like the landfill tax, we need a long-term policy regime, so that anyone involved in technology investment and innovation know what environment they are working under and they dont get any surprises en route. Because thats the thing that immediately turns off all investors.
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