Tories reject European energy efficiency move (Ilford South Liberal Democrats)

Ilford South Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Tories reject European energy efficiency move

May 8, 2009 3:32 PM
Originally published by Sarah Ludford MEP

Tory MEPs in the European Parliament have given their support to a confusing new label for refrigerators. Because of their support, the label might now be introduced despite opposition from consumer and energy saving groups across Europe, including Which? and the Energy Saving Trust in the UK.

The new fridge labelling proposed by the European Commission introduces new categories of efficiency, so-called "beyond A". But these are designated as 'A-20%', 'A-40%' etc, which is supposed to mean better energy efficiency than A. Opponents of the scheme including Liberal Democrats say the new design is incomprehensible and undermines the standard green-to-red A to G approach first introduced in 1992 and understood by over 80% of the population in Europe and adopted by other countries around the world.

Liberal Democrat MEP for London Sarah Ludford said:

"Consumers need clear information about the energy efficiency ratings of products in order to be able to make a choice which will save money and energy. If a fridge is described as A-40, most normal rational people will think that is less energy-efficient than A, not more! The whole scheme is crazy."

"There does need to be reform since due to technology improving, too many fridges currently on the market are labelled with a green A, giving consumers no clear indication which is the most efficient. But a much better approach would be to include the year of origin on the A to G label, and recalibrate the classification every few years to deal with efficiency improvement."

"It is very frustrating that a few votes from Tory MEPs meant the chance was lost to to block the Commission's complicated proposal, so we are now stuck with a compromise designed by a committee of Brussels bureaucrats."

However, MEPs did succeed in blocking a parallel proposal to use the new label design for televisions, so these are getting the energy efficiency label for the first time and it will be under the classic A-G scheme.