Isra-Mart srl:Government reveals plan to promote landfill gas capture

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The government's new carbon plan may have yesterday confirmed deadlines for delivering a Green Investment Bank, setting a carbon floor price, and drawing up plans to roll out electric vehicle infrastructure, but it also provided an update on some of the lesser known aspects of the government's green agenda.

Most notably, the report reiterated that Defra's on-going waste strategy review will aim to put England on "the path to creating a 'zero waste' economy" and revealed the department is exploring new measures designed to promote waste-to-energy technologies.

In particular, it confirmed Defra is working with the Environment Agency "to explore ways to increase the amount of methane that is captured from landfill sites" - an approach that green groups have long argued the UK has been guilty of ignoring.

The plan added that the "Government will set the future policy framework for energy from waste and will publish a full anaerobic digestion strategy in May 2011 as part of the review of waste policies".

Meanwhile, the report provided further details on how the Department for Transport plans to promote adoption of electric cars, confirming that it will not only deliver a strategy for rolling out recharging infrastructure by June this year, but will also provide grant funding worth £30m to support eight towns and cities roll out charging points. It added that the funding will see up to 8,500 charging points installed across the UK by March 2013, while the government will work with the EU to ensure charge points adhere to emerging common standards.

The Department for Transport also revealed it is working on a number of lower profile low carbon initiatives, including incentives designed to encourage firms to switch freight from road haulage to rail and water networks.

The report confirms the department will continue to provide £39m of funding over the next two years to the Mode Shift Revenue Support grant scheme, which helps firms cover any additional costs associated with switching from road to rail or water freight services. It also reveals that it is the government's intention to continue to fund the scheme at a similar level during 2013/14 and 2014/15, noting that last year it helped remove over 800,000 lorry journeys from UK roads generating 130,000 tonnes of CO2 savings.

In addition, the report provides an update on the government's green building policy for commercial properties, confirming the Green Deal loan scheme will be open to businesses and revealing the coalition is "developing options" for extending Display Energy Certificates for commercial buildings.