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The boss of Centrica has called for changes to the Energy Company Obligation (Eco), claiming it is "complicated" and "expensive to administer".
Sam Laidlaw, chief executive at Centrica, added that Eco is much more expensive than government ministers had originally planned.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Laidlaw said he wanted to discuss with the government “whether it [Eco] can be changed to bring down costs”.
He added that Centrica’s environmental costs had also increased by £100 million this year, due to the carbon abatement costing £100-£120 per tonne under Eco, up from £25-£30 per tonne under the scheme’s predecessor, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (Cert).
However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) defended its estimate of the energy efficiency scheme, saying that comparing Eco with Cert is “simply nonsensical”.
A spokesman added: “The schemes are completely different in design, and the carbon opportunities in the real world have changed hugely over recent years.”
“We have seen no hard evidence to suggest we should change our estimate that Eco will cost around £1.3 billion a year.”
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