A new law aimed at fighting
climate change will impact all businesses in the UK, including
the IT sector.
The Climate Change Act, which came into force today, legally
commits the UK to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by
2050.
Initially, the Act provides a framework for further regulatory
action to be rolled out by the government and establishes
overarching emission targets for the government to meet.
Michael Woods, partner at international law firm
Eversheds, said the Act will lead the way in bringing in
requirements on business to meet increasingly challenging targets
for reducing carbon emissions.
"This will be applied in various ways, including the energy
performance of buildings and carbon trading. The IT sector should
therefore anticipate the increasing costs of complying and should
certainly be planning ahead now in order to meet this challenge in
the most cost-effective way," said Woods.
Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, said there
are huge commercial and economic opportunities in the new
technologies associated with combating climate change.
"The world has the potential for an environmental technology
revolution - the kind of revolution recently seen in the
astonishing growth of information technology," he said.