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Bates rallies support for Welsh SME's
September 30, 2008 12:00 AM
Challenging the First Minister in the chamber today, Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates has called for more support for smaller businesses in Wales, to help them adopt energy saving practices and reduce their carbon footprint.
Commenting Mick stated:
"SME's are suffering the impact of the credit crunch and the economic crisis and need more support to reduce their overheads. For example, advice on simple measures such as using low energy LED lightbulbs, which can reduce energy use and cut the cost of energy bills.
"Many environmental schemes, such as carbon trading, have so far focused on larger businesses. But latest figures for 2006 show that our carbon emissions in Wales have in fact increased by 4.7% from the previous year.
"It is clear that current practices are not working. To meet our targets on carbon emissions we need more support for the small business sector, which accounts for 50% of business energy use.
"Small businesses have less time and resources than larger companies, so are often unable to access the information and advice on how to reduce their carbon footprint and are unaware of the few environmental incentives that are currently available.
"It is crucial that the Assembly Government develops a plan to refocus the work of environmental advice agencies to take better account of the needs and limits of smaller companies. We need better targeted incentives to enable small businesses to become more energy efficient and reduce their carbon footprint."
Ends/Diwedd
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