The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have announced that energy intensive industries are to be allocated further funding as part of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF).

The IETF is designed to help businesses with high energy use to cut their energy bills and carbon emissions through investing in energy efficiency and low carbon technologies. The government announced £315 million of funding in the 2018 Budget, available up until 2027.

£12.4 million of government funding has been allocated to the 22 winning projects which include sustainably harvesting food in Carmarthenshire, Wales, through a new air source heat pump system, using revolutionary high temperature heat pumps to reduce the energy needed to heat and cool cheese and reducing emissions in dairy farms across the Midlands.

You can read more here

The EU’s Joint Research Council (JRC) have published details of a modelling exercise they carried out for a 1.5°C global warming scenario.

The modelling exercise found that despite progress being made in 2021 global emissions are still not on track to deliver on the temperature targets of the Paris Agreement.

It also shows that domestic renewable deployment will see most regions reducing their reliance on imported energy, leading to a global increase in energy self-sufficiency.

In the 1.5°C scenario, the energy system undergoes a major restructuring, with fossil fuels reducing their collective share in the global primary energy mix to 21% by 2050, while solar, biomass and wind become the dominant forms of primary energy supply.

You can read more about the findings of modelling exercise here

Food Drink Europe (FDE) have published a position paper on food contact materials. This paper outlines how food packaging plays an active role in reducing food waste and is vital for the transition towards more sustainable food systems.

It also sets out how the European Commission should enable sustainability and safe materials for food packaging.

You can read the position statement in full here

The FSA have now published Wave 5 of ‘Food and You 2’ revealing that most people surveyed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had made changes to their eating habits in the last year, with financial reasons being the biggest driver.

Latest figures from this survey also indicate that 20% of households across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now food insecure. This is the highest reported level of food insecurity since tracking began in 2020.

Food prices are the top concern for people (66%), with food waste (60%) and the amount of sugar in food (59%) also featuring in the top three prompted concerns.

This is the FSA’s flagship consumer survey which measures self-reported consumer knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety and other food issues among adults in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It provides access to high-quality data on what people think, feel and do when it comes to food. The Wave 5 report covers:

• Food you can trust (including confidence in food safety, authenticity and the food supply chain)
• Concerns about food
• Food security
• Food shopping and labelling
• Online platforms
• Eating at home (food safety)
• Food-related behaviours and eating habits

Read the report in full here: Food and You 2, Wave 5

On 27^th January, the House of Lords Library published a research briefing on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

The bill will automatically revoke, or ‘sunset’, most retained EU law at the end of 2023. However, it will also give ministers powers to exempt some retained EU law from the sunset and to restate, reproduce, replace or update retained EU law by statutory instrument.

Concerns have been raised about the amount of retained EU law to be reviewed before the sunset deadline and whether some may end up being revoked inadvertently. MPs and others have also expressed concerns about the impact of large-scale and rapid changes to the statute book because of the bill and have highlighted a lack of clarity about what retained EU law the government intends to keep, particularly in the areas of employment, environmental and consumer protections. They have also been critical of a lack of parliamentary scrutiny of and input into the process of reforming retained EU law. However, the only amendments made to the bill in the House of Commons were government amendments to clarify the bill’s drafting.

The publication of this research briefing came ahead of the bill’s second reading in the House of Lords on 6th February, where members discussed the main issues in the Bill and drew attention to specific areas where they think amendments will be needed.

You can keep track of the bills progress through the various stages here