Defra welcomes budget funding for anaerobic digestion
The Secretary of State for Environment Hilary Benn has welcomed the measures in the 2009 Budget which encourage investment in low carbon jobs and anaerobic digestion.
Chancellor Alistair Darling announced additional funding of £10 million of anaerobic digestion and waste infrastructure in the 2009 Budget (see MRW story).
Benn said: “The Government is committed to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill and finding alternative sources of energy. The £10m for food waste reprocessing will play a vital role in providing alternative energy, diverting a further 300,000 tonnes of food waste from landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the UK we produce over 100 million tonnes of organic material every year that, through anaerobic digestion, could be used to create enough energy to heat and power over two million homes.
And it's not only the environment that will benefit. Increasing our anaerobic digestion capability will also stimulate a greener economy by creating skilled jobs in construction, collection and reprocessing of organic waste.
In February, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it wanted the UK to become a world leader in using AD. The £10m fund package announced in the budget is in addition to the £10m already earmarked in 2008 to build demonstration plants.
The Waste & Resources Action Programme has also welcomed the Budget measures for AD. It claimed that the funding will enable new composting and AD facilities to be built. WRAP chief executive Liz Goodwin said: “It will help to stimulate a greener economy by creating skilled jobs in construction, collection and reprocessing – and bring significant environmental benefits.”
But financial advisory firm Catalyst Corporate Finance partner Mark Wilson said that the £10m will not go far and funding for AD is “relatively small”. He said: “On the one hand the Government has been championing AD vociferously for the past six months and then they announce what is a paltry funding commitment to the sector. Mixed messages are not helpful.
“There are 200 food processing plants in the UK which could use AD technology as well as the municipal solid waste, food retail, agriculture, and land estates sector. There is sufficient demand for a big push on AD.
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