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Plea to Government to help Energy from Waste Companies

More should be done to allow businesses specialising in creating energy from waste to contribute to meeting Scotland’s low carbon targets.

A leading European legal expert on the sector is to tell industry leaders and, particularly, politicians attending the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference in Edinburgh later this year that not enough is being done to stimulate investment in innovative energy from waste infrastructure capable of producing heat, electricity and transport and other fuels.

Vincent Brown, a Partner at Semple Fraser and Visiting Professor in Environmental Law at University of Strathclyde Law School, is a speaker at the event, due to take place at Edinburgh International Conference Centre on September 27th and 28th.

Now in its second year, the SLCI Conference will be opened by Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond. World-renowned climate change campaigner, Nobel Laureate and former US Vice-President Al Gore has been confirmed as a keynote speaker. More information is available online at www.slciconference.com

Mr Brown believes more can be done to help firms operating in this field in terms of planning regimes and wider market uncertainty, and said: “We feel in certain respects that not enough has been done to explore the potential for energy from waste to contribute to renewables targets.

“Waste is a problem - if you can take that problem and turn it into a solution, by taking a waste that would be burned or landfilled and make a new energy product from it, that's renewable energy as far as I am concerned."

Mr Brown stressed he was NOT discussing the incineration of harmful waste with careless disregard for human health and the environment.

“There is much more to it than that. It covers a very wide spectrum, but generally it involves taking a waste and doing something intelligent with it. It is possible to combust waste to produce heat and electricity, or to digest it to produce a biogas that can be injected into the gas grid for use in people's homes. It is even possible to transform the waste so that it is not waste any more. The ‘fuel’ produced is just that – a fuel, not a waste. The processing is so good, that the material ceases to be waste. It has left the waste chain. For me, this latter area receives insufficient recognition or incentivisation. The legal term for it is ‘complete recovery’ (of waste), though it is also called ‘end of waste’. Companies in this type of endeavour (and investment) deserve more help”

Many businesses involved in this type of activity are re-branding themselves as resource and energy service companies, not waste companies.

This is justifiable in most cases, according to Mr Brown. However, he said some hurdles still remain, not least the fact that many industry leading initiatives receive little if any incentivisation, and he maintains Government has a key role to play in helping remove these hurdles.

“The ‘image’ problem combined with the planning system continue to be a drag. There is also market uncertainty in relation to electricity market reform and how much of a share of the renewables cake EfW can expect to get. There is no doubt there will continue to be market incentives to create renewable energy, but who is getting what? What waste feedstocks will be eligible for support? The Zero Waste agenda in Scotland has the potential to complicate this issue further, resulting in potential disadvantage to Scottish operators. The long-term agenda from government must be clearer.”

Date: Tuesday 27th & Wednesday 28th September 2011

Location: Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 150 Morrison Street, Edinburgh, EH3 8E

Cost: £495 + VAT for 2-day conference

£150 + VAT for exclusive drinks reception and dinner on the evening of the 27th September at the

National Museum of Scotland

**20% discount for Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce members for cost of the conference!! Please

click here to contact the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce events team for further information**

How to Book

To register your interest in attending the conference and to book your place please click here.

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