Renew On Line (UK) 39

Extracts from the Sept-Oct 2002 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

9. Energy efficiency at all costs ?

Professor Jake Chapman, a director of National Energy Services and a member of the team that produced the UK Energy Review published in Feb. by the Cabinet Office’s Performance and Innovation Unit, told delegates at a conference on the National Home Energy Rating system that it was time to start creating serious motivations for people to adopt energy efficiency improvements. "The PIU Energy Review calls for a step change, and reminds us that we don’t really have a choice - the time for action is now. We can’t wait for perceptions to change gradually over another decade. Scientists, engineers and economists have always just assumed that energy efficiency and saving money are so obviously desirable that consumers will buy into it automatically. In the real world, though, the monetary savings are not enough to make any impact and the concept of ‘saving the planet’ is just too distant. To get action we have to provide people with a real motive - and back it up with regulations to eliminate inefficient appliances and buildings."

Chapman argued that saving £1 a week on our fuel bills means nothing to most of us, but just putting up fuel prices so that people take this more seriously would have a damaging impact on those living in fuel poverty. "The first priority must be to improve the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock, targeting the 6 million low-income households that cannot afford to keep their homes adequately heated and damp-free. Once Government has tackled fuel poverty, it can raise fuel prices and create an economic system that really motivates us to reduce excessive energy consumption. Similarly, we should tax inefficient homes at the point of sale as well as providing the means to upgrade. And increasing standards of energy efficiency in all new homes, in both the public and private sectors, should be driven forward by the Building Regulations. We need continued emphasis on these sorts of regulations that place the responsibility with those organisations best placed to deliver improvements and remove the need for decision-making by the consumer."

The PIU called for 20% reduction in energy use by 2020 on top of the existing goal of a 20% cut by 2010. Some of that should come from the new building regulations which came into force in April. However, that may not be enough. Margot Marshall of the Energy Saving Trust has said that the April rules are already outdated. "Even our new building regulations coming in this year are not as strict or as good as those in (mainland) Europe. We think that the government should signal now that by 2010 there will be really tough building regulations."