TARGETS FOR MICROGENERATION

That this House welcomes the passing of the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act in 2006; notes the importance of section 4 of the Act which relates to the setting of targets for microgeneration; further notes the importance of such targets in order to achieve reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide, especially in the light of the recent Stern report that emphasised the urgency of this issue; emphasises in addition the views of industry that targets are crucial in securing sufficient investor confidence to train installers, establishing mass market delivery channels and obtaining funding for large scale investment in mass production; further notes that such developments will make microgeneration equipment far cheaper and so ensure that the pay-back period for customers is reduced, thus enabling microgeneration to make the big step from a niche market product to being a mass market product and contribute even more to efforts to reduce climate change at no cost to the public purse; and urges the Secretary of State for the Environment to work in conjunction with the industry in order to set a challenging but achieveable target within the timescale required by the Act.