Monday 31 March 2008

A new report, How Low? - Achieving Optimal Carbon Savings from the UK's Housing Stock, contains the first ever modelling of the UK's entire housing stock, shows that improved insulation and low and zero carbon technologies such as ground source heat pumps and solar water heating are key to greening our homes and getting Scotland on track to meet the Government's planned 80% emission reduction targets for 2050.

By following the WWF proposals, Scotland's poorly insulated, energy inefficient housing stock could be transformed into cheaper to run, low carbon homes by the end of the next decade, achieving 44% emissions reductions by 2020 and 77% by 2050.

Elizabeth Leighton, WWF Scotland Footprint Policy Officer said: "Nearly a third of Scotland's climate change emissions come from homes so it is vital we have a wholesale revision of the way in which the environmental impacts of the country's housing stock is tackled. Unless both the UK and Scottish Governments instigate a programme of making improvements to existing housing stock now, they will miss one of the best opportunities to achieve the early carbon emissions reductions needed to meet the Scottish Government's target of 80% emissions reduction by 2050. At the same time, this programme would lower energy bills and help eliminate fuel poverty."

WWF is calling for the following:
Nationwide installation of low and zero carbon technologies. This will increase the efficiency of the housing stock, and create a greater skilled workforce

Increased financial support for homeowners to help them afford the installation of technologies such as solar heating and ground source heat pumps

A range of financial incentives to motivate homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes e.g. council tax rebates or low cost loans.

A revision of the obligations on energy suppliers to ensure they support the roll out of solid wall insulation and low and zero carbon technologies.

Current measures to encourage homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes present a confusing picture of many small programmes rather than a seriously resourced, coherent programme to improve Scotland's homes.

In 2006/7, the Energy Savings Trust received just over 100,000 requests for energy advice and 742 Scots installed renewables in their homes. While this is good news, this comes nowhere near the scale of change required to achieve significant emissions reductions.

This is because current UK and Scottish policy is reliant upon homeowners installing measures it defines as "cost-effective". These include cavity wall, loft, and hot water cylinder insulation, draught proofing, efficient boilers, and heating controls. Uptake of these measures has historically been poor, and existing financial incentives simply fail to encourage their wider take up by homeowners. WWF's How Low report shows that even if all homes did install these measures, household CO2 emissions would be reduced by just 22 per cent, failing to meet the UK Government's own 2020 climate change targets.

The report concludes that it is feasible for Scotland to meet CO2 emission reduction targets of 80 per cent in the domestic housing sector by 2050. To achieve this would require a rapid and extensive roll out of micro-renewables, the decarbonisation of electricity supply by roll-out of large-scale renewable energy projects and, potentially, application of carbon capture and storage technology. It would also require an improvement in the energy efficiency of appliances, and more carbon-conscious behaviour in the home. Whilst this does mean considerable extra investment now, it is minimal compared to the cost of doing nothing.