So the government’s big low carbon transition plan was launched today mapping out how we’ll achieve emissions cuts of 34% by 2020. It’s a beast of a document at over 200 pages but any strategy that promises the creation of 1.2 Million “green jobs” isn’t going to be able to tell you how on a couple of sides of A4. Overall it seems to do a good job of pulling together previously disparate policies in to a coherent transition plan and we welcome that. I’ve included a summary list of all the big ideas below and we’re particularly pleased to see the reinforced commitment to smart metering and smart grids. However, ICT and associated technologies are critical enablers of this transition and don’t seem to get much of a mention elsewhere. Maybe that’s fair enough when the document points out that half of the proposed carbon cuts by 2020 would come from changes to the power sector. But the 15% that will come from making homes more efficient, 10% from workplace improvements, and 20% from changing how we travel (the other 5% from agriculture and land use) will also benefit from ICT applications. The problem here is the lack of a market for these already-available technologies and we must be smarter at addressing how we tackle this.

Summary points:

• Plans are projected to create 1.2m “green jobs”
• Every government department will be required to meet a carbon budget alongside its financial budget.
• Domestic energy prices would rise in 2020 to pay for some of the required changes. Hopes are this would be offset with energy efficiency savings in 7m homes and financial help for the poorest consumers.
• launches consultation on the details of the government’s feed-in tariff, re-named the “clean energy cash-back” scheme, which will pay people and businesses a premium for generating low-carbon electricity. A similar scheme for renewable heat will follow in April 2011.
• Introduces plans for a “pay as you save” scheme for homeowners to receive loans to insulate their homes, with money repaid by savings in energy costs.
• Up to £6m to start development of a “smart grid”, including a policy road map next year.
• Launch of the new Office for Renewable Energy Deployment in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to speed up the growth of renewables in the UK.
• DECC to take direct responsibility from Ofgem for establishing a new grid access regime within 12 months.
• Up to £180m would be made available to promote wind and tidal power – this includes setting up a low-carbon economic area in the south-west to promote marine technologies and money for up to 3,000 wind turbines off the UK’s shores by 2020.
• £15m to establish a Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre that will develop the next generation of nuclear power infrastructure.
• £10 million will go to improving infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.
• Challenging 15 villages, towns or cities to be test-beds for piloting future green initiatives.

The football season is over (it isn’t really but that’s what you tell people who don’t like football) but talk of league tables isn’t. In fact, having just submitted the Intellect response to the DECC consultation on The Carbon Reduction Commitment, league tables are very much front of mind. I can’t help thinking that the hackneyed old saying from football managers past and present that “the table doesn’t lie” might not be true when it comes to Government carbon reduction policy. If the CRC goes through as drafted it could lead to the publication of misleading company league tables that don’t accurately reflect the energy efficiency gains made by those listed. It could could be particularly bad for IT companies who take on the energy liability of other organisations when IT functions are outsourced to them. These processes will probably be carried out far more efficiently but the IT company will in effect be penalised in the lague table for growing it’s business and saving energy! The CBI and Intellect are together on challenging this and we hope things will change otherwise football managers everywhere will have to add a caveat to their favourite soundbite.

Times are hard in Digital Communications. Consumer confidence is at an all time low, retail sales are down and jobs are being cut. There are some bright spots but the recent launch by Lord Carter of his interim Digital Britain report was a real ray of sunshine in amongst this economic gloom. He promised that the final recommendations will “advance our standing as a world leader in [the digital communications] industries” and “see Digital Britain as the leading major economy for innovation, investment and quality.” This is sounds great, really great, but at all costs we must avoid the worst case scenario: that we become a technological island.

I’ve just written an article on this in May’s edition of IQ