BPF Director General Comments on Low Carbon Industrial Strategy

Commenting on the UK Low Carbon Industrial Strategy launched by the Government on 15 July 2009, British Plastics Federation (BPF), Director-General Peter Davis said:

" Moving to a low carbon economy presents huge oppurtunities for the plastics industry in : saving energy by lightweighting vehicles ,aircraft, trains and trams,packaging. The Government wants to generate 33GW from wind power by 2020. That means a huge demand for turbine rotors made from plastic composites. Lets ensure they are all made in the UK. Plastics also has a strong contribution to make in insulation of buildings, renewable construction materials and also harnessing wave and wind power. I made these points to Ed Miliband the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when I spoke to him on Wednesday night " 

Davis said " One concern we have however is that the Government appears to be shifting all resource to a low carbon economy. There are many plastic products and sectors of the industry which are not low carbon or high carbon but play a vital role in developing high value innovative products which win markets overseas. Examples are health care and plastics electronics. These sectors must also get Government support." " It's hard to see where the Government's new 400,000 low carbon jobs are going to come from."

On the Energy White Paper Davis said " We are most concerned that Industry is expected to bear the brunt of the cost of new energy provision, with our energy bills forecast to rise 17% compared to 8% for households." "Its difficult to see where all the finance is coming from to replace the ageing oil, coal and nuclear generating capacity. Time is being lost and the risk of power cuts from 2013 onwards through supply not equalling demand grows ever closer."