Emissions from Welsh homes could be slashed by 80% but will local councils be up for the challenge?

Carbon emissions from Welsh homes could be cut by 80 per cent by 2050, according to a new report published today (27 November) by the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute [1]. But according to the Wales Audit Office many local councils in Wales are already failing to meet their current 30% reduction target for energy efficiency.

Oxford University's report, Home Truths, was commissioned by Friends of the Earth and The Co-operative Bank as part of The Big Ask Campaign for a strong climate change law [2]. It assesses the UK Government's record and sets out, for the first time, a blue print for delivering huge carbon cuts from all homes while eradicating fuel poverty, creating jobs; cutting energy bills; and increasing fuel security [3].

Carbon dioxide emissions from the housing sector have risen by more than five per cent since 1997 and account for 27 per cent of Wales's carbon footprint. In 2004 the number of households in Wales living in fuel poverty was 134,000 [4].

A Wales Audit Office report published in September showed that all 22 local authorities in Wales have failed to meet the targets agreed by the Welsh Assembly to improve home energy efficiency [5]. It stated that future progress could only be made if the Welsh Assembly Government set out a clear direction and forced councils to focus efforts on improving the efficiency of private sector homes.

The new Home Truths report outlines a comprehensive policy framework at local, national and EU level, for cutting carbon emissions from new and existing homes [6]. It shows how initial UK Government spending of £12.9 billion a year for approximately ten years can deliver 80 per cent cuts in carbon emissions, the elimination of fuel poverty and provide permanent energy savings from UK homes worth £12.3 billion a year. The average household could see their energy bills cut by at least 66 per cent, equivalent to a £425 annual saving at today's prices.

Investing in low-carbon homes will also help avoid damage from climate change which the Stern Report estimates could cost the UK economy over £100 billion a year by 2050 [7].

Key recommendations include:

• Introducing a package of financial incentives
  Financial incentives will make it cheaper for householders to cut their energy use and produce their own green energy. This package will include grants, low interest loans, stamp duty rebates and a reduction in VAT on energy efficiency measures to five per cent.
  
• Reforming the energy market
  A feed-in-tariff system is introduced which rewards households that fit low or zero carbon technology (LZC), such as solar panels, with a guaranteed premium price for any electricity they sell back to the grid. It is complemented by a renewable heat obligation, which requires a proportion of household heat to come from LZC sources, and a green gas tariff which encourages the use of waste gas as a fuel.
  The aim is to fit every home in the UK with at least one LZC by 2050. UK households would be net exporters of electricity, generating up to ten percent more then they require.
  
• Eradicating Fuel Poverty
  Low-carbon Zones will be created, initially in areas where there is a concentration of fuel poor households. Local authorities would implement a street by street programme of improvements aimed at upgrading the walls, windows and roofs of homes in each zone by, for example, insulating solid walls. The report estimates that this approach would eliminate fuel poverty at a cost of £3.3 billion a year for the next nine years - treating 444,000 houses a year at an average cost of £7,500 per house.
  
• Introducing and enforcing minimum standards for homes
  All homes in the UK will be issued with an Energy Performance Certificate grading them from G (very inefficient) to A (very efficient and almost carbon zero). Minimum standards for energy performance will then be introduced and tightened over successive years. Anyone who buys or rents out a house or flat that does not meet the minimum standard will not be allowed to sell or re-let it until it has been upgraded. By 2050 three million homes, which are so cold they are officially a health hazard, will have been upgraded, and the rate of heat loss in the average house will be halved.

Friends of the Earth's Big Ask Campaign and The Co-operative Bank are campaigning for a strong climate change law that will commit the UK to cutting its emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Home Truths demonstrates that the Wales and the UK housing sector can deliver this level of cuts in an equitable way.

Anna McMorrin, Friends of the Earth Cymru campaigner, said:

"It is neither cheap nor easy for a householder to make their home low-carbon. The Welsh Assembly along with the UK Government must radically change their approach. The investment required is significant but the economic costs of not tackling combat climate change would be catastrophic."

Dr Brenda Boardman [8], the report author said:

"This report sets out a win-win scenario. It shows that we can make huge cuts in emissions from UK housing and that we can do this in a way which wipes out fuel poverty and ensures everyone has a warm, comfortable, low-carbon home. The Government needs to drive this transformation. It needs to provide the political commitment and financial support to turn this report into reality."

Notes

1. The report outlines how household carbon emissions can be reduced by 80 per cent by 2050 based on 1990 levels.
2. Friends of the Earth has led the campaign for a strong climate change law through The Big Ask climate campaign (www.thebigask.com). The environmental charity is calling for the law that commits the UK to cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050 and covers emissions from international aviation and shipping from the outset.
3. The term fuel poverty applies to anyone who needs to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on energy to keep themselves warm and provide other energy needs in their home.
4. The Welsh Assembly Government's 'Fuel Poverty in Wales' report published in 2004, estimated that the number of households in Wales living in fuel poverty was 134,000.
5. The ' Delivering the Home Energy Conservation Act in Wales' report was published on 13 September 2007 by the Auditor General for Wales.
6. The report found the Government's current policies will at best deliver carbon emissions reductions from housing of between 11 and 18 per cent by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels). This is barely half the 30 percent reduction the Government should have achieved by 2020 if they were to be on a trajectory to reduce household carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, let alone 80 per cent by 2050.
7. Stern estimates that damage from not tackling climate change will be 5 - 20 per cent of world GDP by 2050. Assuming just 5 per cent damage, the cost to the UK economy is over £100 billion a year by 2050.
8. Dr Brenda Boardman MBE was, until September, head of the Lower Carbon Futures team at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and Co-Director of the Joint Research Councils UK Energy Research Centre, responsible for the Demand Reduction themeShe is now on sabbatical.