Businesses 'must be incentivised' to reduce emissions

The decision to reduce emissions for many businesses could be prompted by tax breaks for doing so, it is suggested.

Josh Boulton, publisher of Green IT Magazine, says tax breaks now could help the UK government to show it is following through on its vision of the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

This initially intended to tax businesses that did not reduce emissions, with the revenues used to help the economy as a whole to become greener.

However, Mr Boulton claims the taxes raised are now being spent "on god knows what".

"Tax breaks are needed to incentivise companies to do the right thing - it's pounds and pence," he says.

Meanwhile, he anticipates 2011 to be a "stepping stone along the road to green", but not a remarkable 12 months in real terms.

Rather than transforming the green economy in any major ways, Mr Boulton forecasts that the trends already taking shape in the past one to two years will continue into 2012.