Report: ALTENER 4.1030/Z/01-088: 4CElectricity - Consumer Choice and Carbon Consciousness for Electricity

Project website: www.electricitylabels.com Project Start: January 2002 Coordinator: University of Oxford, Environmental Change Institute (ECI), UK Status: Finished, September 2003

The project €Consumer Choice and Carbon Consciousness for Electricity (4C Electricity)€ has been carried out under the framework of the EU Altener programme and in the context of the European Directive 2003/54/EC on liberalisation of the European electricity market, adopted in June 2003. The aim of this project is to promote electricity disclosure, i.e. consumer information about the source of the electricity product they are currently buying and the implications of its generation.

To assist consumers in making an informed choice in the liberalised electricity market place, this project has developed some options for label design (and the information system behind it) that will provide consumers with details of the content of their supply mix and its resulting environmental implications.

By designing an information system which displays details about the primary energy sources used to generate a certain product, these labels provide a tool which can aid consumers and policy makers in greening Europe€s electricity supply.

The electricity disclosure scheme has been explored within the context of liberalisation, in order to ensure that a functional and practical scheme is proposed. An assessment of the opportunities and barriers to labelling, and especially for tracking electricity, from the changes to the European liberalised markets was undertaken.

This was achieved through the following activities:

• Phase 1: A study of the ability of suppliers to access and provide the information needed for an electricity label within the context of liberalisation.
• Phase 2: A study of what the label will mean for consumers and what consumers want by consulting with them through focus groups, a telephone survey and one-onone interviews.
• Phase 3: Interaction with existing policies and development of new policies to maximise the impact of the label, as well as investigating the need for associated policies to ensure effectiveness. This final phase estimates the cost of implementing a disclosure scheme, assesses the label in the context of a policy framework towards a lower carbon future and suggests a policy toolbox that can be employed to build on the label.

In the course of the project, two workshops were held, forming key deliverables of the 4C Electricity project. The project ran from January 2002 to September 2003.

Further information and a copy of the final report is available on the 4C Electricity project is available on the project website.

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ALTENER II Programme 1998-2002 : Carbon Balances : Electricity : Renewable Energy Sources & Systems

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Österreichische Energieagentur - Austrian Energy Agency

Öko-Institut (Institut für angewandte Ökologie) Institute for Applied Ecology

CEU - Central European University Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy

SEI - Stockholm Environment Institute

ECI - Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

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