CO2 and UK's Housing Stock

The Cameron government slashed support for home insulation and energy saving and what happened? Nothing, of course. The Treasury has this quaint idea that home owners who could afford to retrofit their dwellings will voluntarily go ahead and do so. Yes, there another big fat pink porker flying past my window right now. It won't happen without incentives. This note from Edie on the latest CCC report spells out the problem.



The UK will not hit its legally binding carbon reduction targets unless the Government acts now to address the "increasing uncomfortable and unsafe" national housing stock, according to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC).

The CCC’s 'UK housing: Fit for the future?' report warns that the UK Climate Change Act target of reducing emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050 will not be reached without the “near-complete elimination” of emissions from UK buildings.

The report claims that Government U-turns and suddenly policy changes have created a skills gap in housing design and construction, which has led to emissions from the UK’s 29 million homes to stall rather than shrink.

At the same time, the UK housing stock is unprepared for future climate impacts, the report notes. Around 4.5 million homes suffer from overheating, while 1.8 million are located in areas of significant flood risks. The report warns that water scarcity and increased temperatures could create unsafe and detrimental living conditions for UK citizens.

The CCC’s chair, Lord Deben, said: “Simply put, there is no way in which the UK can meet the legally binding climate change targets that Parliament has determined unless we take the measures outlined in this report.”

Energy use in homes increased in 2016 and accounts for 14% of total UK emissions. However, the report claims that existing technology could deliver high-quality, low-carbon and climate-resilient homes, if new policies can plug the existing skills and knowledge gaps.

The report criticises the withdrawal of key low-carbon policy frameworks, notably the zero carbon homes scheme. The CCC claims that policies that boost uptake of low-carbon technologies could save households in new homes between £70 and £260 on annual energy bills.

On the home stretch

The report also recommends that energy efficiency measures, like insulation, should be a priority for the existing housing stock, while new homes should be built to be low-carbon, water-efficient and climate-resilient. By 2025, no new homes should be connected to the gas grid.

In fact, the report urges the UK Government to secure funding for low-carbon heating beyond 2021 and for local authorities to be given greater resources to plan and design new homes.

The Green Finance Taskforce’s recommendations to promote green mortgages were also welcomed by the CCC’s report.

The Government should also launch a nationwide training programme as part of the Industrial Strategy’s Construction Sector Deal, the report notes. The £420m deal provides a framework for the built environment sector to halve the energy use of new buildings by 2030.

The CCC’s Adaption Committee’s chair Baroness Brown added: “The Government now has an opportunity to act. There must be compliance with stated building designs and standards. We need housing with low-carbon sources of heating. And we must finally grasp the challenge of improving our poor levels of home energy efficiency.

“As the climate continues to change, our homes are becoming increasingly uncomfortable and unsafe. This will continue unless we take steps now to adapt them for higher temperatures, flooding and water scarcity. Our report shows that this work has barely begun.”

Matt Mace

Does Your Company Have A CO2 Goal?

Some worrying detail in this report from Edie:



Most European companies have no target for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions even though 80% see climate change as a business risk, a survey has found.

Among those that have set climate goals, only one in three stretch beyond 2025, according to the annual Carbon Disclosure Project report.

Instead, corporate action has focused in the boardroom, with 47% of firms rewarding their CEOs for climate performance, and a quarter tying incentives to environmental goals.

European firms now make up half of the CDP’s environmental “A-list” and the managing director for Europe, Steven Tebbe, praised climate disclosure’s entry into the financial mainstream.

“The next decade is vital if our shift to a sustainable economy is to be successful, and companies lie at the heart of this transition,” he said.

A-list companies on the Stoxx global climate change leaders index outperformed their peers by 5.5% per annum this decade, he noted.

Although 53% of companies surveyed did not yet have climate goals, 58% reported carbon cuts in 2018, amounting to a total reduction of the equivalent of 85m tonnes of CO2 – as much as Austria’s annual emissions.

One-third of companies reported increased emissions.

One A-listed property management firm, Landsec, has cut its greenhouse gases by 17% since 2014 – on the way to a planned 40% tail-off by 2030.

Caroline Hill, Landsec’s head of sustainability, said: “We set what was the first science-based carbon reduction target in real estate, based on what was needed in our sector to ensure the world keeps within 1.5 to 2C of global warming.”

She said the company drove down energy consumption in London offices and suburban retail parks by upgrading to LED lighting and systematically installing rooftop solar panels.

This year, CDP received climate disclosures from 849 European companies in 23 countries, with combined emissions of around 2.3bn tonnes of CO2 – a total greater than the UK, Germany and France combined.

Campaigners responded angrily to the inclusion on the A-list of fossil fuel firms such as Engie, Naturgy Energy Group SA and Neste Oyj, chemical firms Bayer AG and BASF, and food companies such as Nestlé.

Pascoe Sabido, a spokesman for Corporate Europe Observatory, said: “If these companies represent the crème de la crème of environmentally-friendly big businesses, then we really are in trouble.

“They shouldn’t be celebrated, they should be kept as far away from our policy-makers as possible.”

Tebbe said: “We are not claiming these are perfect companies – far from it – but they are really going beyond the consensus and showing leadership in their sectors.”

Arthur Nelson

Electric Cars Cheaper to Run

The following fascinating report is from Edie. I have been mulling the idea of the next household car being an electric one and this is added incentive. The critical issue, of course, is the continued greening of electricity supply. If there really is a massive increase in electric vehicles, and we move to the likes of heat pumps for space heating and induction hobs for coking, then electricity supply will have to increase significantly - and that must not be through fossil fuels.

Electric cars are already cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel alternatives in five European countries analysed in new research.

The study examined the purchase, fuel and tax costs of Europe’s bestselling car, the VW golf, in its battery electric, hybrid, petrol and diesel versions. Over four years, the pure electric version was the cheapest in all places – UK, Germany, France, Netherlands and Norway – owing to a combination of lower taxes, fuel costs and subsidies on the purchase price.

Researchers from the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT) said their report showed that tax breaks are a key way to drive the rollout of electric vehicles and tackle climate change and air pollution.

Carbon emissions from transport are a big contributor to global warming, but have been rising in recent years in the European Union. Vehicles are also a source of much air pollution, which causes 500,000 early deaths a year in the EU.

Electric cars offer the biggest savings over diesel in Norway (27%) as the battery-powered vehicles are exempt from a heavy registration tax. The ICCT analysis was updated for the Guardian after recent cuts in the UK’s grants for electric car purchases. It shows British drivers see the smallest saving – 5%. In Germany, France and the Netherlands, the saving varied from 11% to 15%.

Sandra Wappelhorst, from the ICCT, said: “Most trips are within an electric vehicle’s range, and it is the battery electric vehicle that turns out to be the most cost-effective over four years. But if you’re a country doctor, who might have to respond to emergency calls at odd hours in odd places, you’ll have to evaluate a battery electric car differently to a London surgeon.”

Wappelhorst said financial incentives for electric cars would not be needed when purchase prices fall to that of fossil-fuel powered cars, which is likely between 2025 and 2030. “It will happen, because battery costs are dropping and that means that the initial price of the vehicles will drop as well,” she added.

Cost is not the only factor, Wappelhorst said. While electric car owners can also benefit from reduced parking and road toll charges, they need to be confident there are sufficient charging points. Regulation is also needed to push car manufacturers toward low-emission vehicles, she said.

The analysis showed plug-in hybrid vehicles were often the most expensive to run over four years, in part due to the higher purchase of vehicles that in effect have two engines.

James Tate, at the University of Leeds, and colleagues published a study in December 2017 looking at the costs of motoring in the UK, US and Japan. It focused on depreciation and fuel costs and also found electric cars were cheapest: electricity much is less expensive than petrol or diesel.

Tate said the UK government could do more to drive the growth of electric cars. “My view is that the UK should do much more to steer the market away from the most polluting and inefficient cars, ie SUVs/4x4 which are continuing to grow in sales,” he said. “These large, heavy vehicles burden us and the climate with unnecessary CO2 and air pollutants. A taxation policy that rises with fuel consumption rates, such as in the Netherlands and Norway is overdue.”

UK taxation does increase with emissions for company cars, but not for privately owned ones.

In 2018, the sales of new electric cars in the UK rose by 21%, reaching a market share of 6%. In contrast, diesel car sales plummeted by 30%, though this was still a 32% market share.

Tate said carmakers, still reeling from the diesel emissions scandal, were struggling to keep up. “Demand for electric vehicles is outstripping supply. Manufacturers are scaling up production and developing new models, but have been caught out by the rapid change in the market.”

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “The UK government’s enthusiasm for electric cars is clear, but it must ensure its policies are clear and consistent so private and fleet buyers can make purchasing decisions that aren’t undermined by policy shifts further down the road.”

Damian Carrington