Last updated 23rd January 2002

Climate change is a global problem that threatens to affect the biosphere. Whilst the scientific community are divided over the extent of the damage that might occur if we continue to pollute our environment at the present rate it is clear that mankind is leaving his mark on mother Earth.
Having finally been persuaded that conservation is not just an issue for 'tree-huggers' on mind-expanding drugs, world leaders met to discuss the issues during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. This was followed by the Kyoto summit in 1997.
Most countries agreed to introduce legislation to help combat the problem of 'greenhouse gas' emissions and for its part the UK agreed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 20% on 1990 levels by 2010.
Unfortunately the largest polluter, the USA, has refused to make similar commitments. This makes a total mockery of any reductions the UK might achieve. (Come on guys, face your responsibilities!)
To help force down UK emissions the Government introduced the 'Climate Change Levy' on April 1st 2001. This is a tax on energy that most industrial users have had to bear.
The tax is meant to be 'revenue-neutral' i.e. the proceeds are supposed to be recycled back into industry and not simply used to top-up the Governments coffers.
The £1 billion revenue likely to be collected in 2001/2002 will be recycled to business through a 0.3% cut in the rate of employers' National Insurance contributions and also through Government support for energy efficiency measures.
The Government has set aside £100 million in the first year of the Climate Change Levy to fund a system of 100% first year 'Enhanced Capital Allowances' for investments in energy saving technology.
The Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme allows businesses to write-off the whole cost of their investment in energy saving equipment against their taxable profits for the tax year in which they make the investment.
Not all energy saving equipment is eligible for this tax relief and to clarify what is and is not covered the Government produced a list of approved technologies.
The list was laid by the Treasury on July 17th 2001 and took effect from August 7th 2001.
Powermiser technology has been recognised by the Government as producing substantial reductions in the electricity used by injection moulding machines and as such has been included on the list.
This means that moulders who adopt Powermiser technology can help themselves to a generous tax handout to make up for the pain introduced by the Climate Change Levy.
As an example, if £10,000 worth of Powermiser equipment is installed you can save £3,000 by claiming the Enhanced Capital Allowance. Normally the tax write-off on capital equipment would take 10 years to recover.
The Powermiser system is the only variable-speed drive system for use with injection moulding machines that has been included on the list. Other technologies such as 'voltage optimisers' have been specifically excluded.