The news follows a year of lobbying work by Confor to get the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to include sawmills. CCA acceptance effectively gives mills the ability to avoid two energy taxes currently levied on the sector.

Sawmills will need to commit to reduce energy consumption per unit of production in return for a rebate on the Climate Change Levy and avoidance of the Climate Reduction Commitment.

Confor said mill energy reduction measures should be practical, with a reasonable payback period.

"Many sawmills can potentially benefit from participating in the CCA and Confor would be happy to advise any interested mill," said Confor chief executive Stuart Goodall.

"However, mills consuming less than 10,000 tonnes of wood a year may find the financial benefit to be marginal at best."

A sector target for reducing energy has been submitted to DECC. The next stage will be to finalise the details and for interested sawmills to apply.