Ministers meet to cut consumption

Major UK electronic retailers are today meeting with ministers to address how to deliver more energy efficient products to consumers in light of a huge projected increase in domestic electricity consumption.

Environment Minister Ian Pearson and Financial Secretary to the Treasury John Healey are holding the summit with representatives from companies including Argos Retail Group, Amazon, Asda, Comet, Dixons Group, John Lewis, Kingfisher (B&Q), Morrisons, Morphy Richards, Sainsbury's and Tesco.

The initiative, announced in this year's Budget, will look to set up a voluntary partnership for retailers to commit, from next year, to sell energy efficient consumer electronic products, with the aim of significantly reducing carbon emissions from these products by 2010.

Last year, consumer electronics used around 18 terawatt hours (TWh), equivalent to the annual output from 5 standard power stations, amounting to 30 per cent of UK's total domestic electricity consumption. Statistics from Defra's Market Transformation Programme show that this could rise to 31TWh by 2010. This is mainly due to the rise in the number of televisions in people's homes, demand for larger screens and for digital set-top boxes.