There is a “shocking” gap in Government efforts to ensure homes are better insulated in the face of soaring energy bills, climate advisers have said. The Climate Change Committee’s latest report warns that Government plans for tackling global warming will not deliver on legal targets to cut emissions in the coming decades.
And the independent advisory committee singled out energy efficiency to make UK homes less leaky and cheaper to heat, along with a lack of action on farming emissions, as particular problem areas. In its annual report to Parliament on the progress being made to tackle the UK’s contribution to climate change, the committee called for action to address the rising cost of living that is in line with cutting emissions to zero over all – known as net zero – by 2050.
A fast, sustained push to improve energy efficiency in homes and switch to electric heating, such as heat pumps, to reduce fossil fuel consumption would help people cope with high energy prices, it said. The average annual energy bill for UK households is around £40 more than it would be if insulation had carried on at rates seen before policy support was removed in 2012, and British homes are among the most heat-leaking in Europe.
