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News Update
Government ‘lacks clear net zero strategy’
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As it gears up to host the international climate summit COP26 a few months from now the UK Government lacks a plan for how it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 despite setting the target - in law - almost two years ago, according to the Public Accounts Committee.
Government “intends to publish a plethora of strategies this year” setting out how it will reduce emissions in different sectors ranging from transport to the heating of buildings, but at present, there is no coordinated plan with clear milestones towards achieving the target, the Committee says.
Departments across Government are not yet sufficiently considering the impact on net zero when taking forward projects and programmes. The Treasury has changed the guidance on policy appraisal to ensure departments place greater emphasis on the environmental impacts, but also hasn’t set out how this will work in practice.
Government is not yet ensuring its activities to reduce UK emissions are not simply transferring emissions overseas, which would undermine global efforts to tackle climate change.
As much as 62 per cent of the future reduction in emissions will rely on individual behaviour including day-to-day choices to one-off purchases such as replacing boilers or buying an electric vehicle.
Bristol receives cash as it heads towards net zero
Bristol’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 has been further enhanced after the city was awarded £6.9m to help reduce emissions from its public buildings.
The central government funding will be used to extend the Bristol Heat Network to nine sites.
The money will be used to improve existing connections the heat network and to fund the replacement of existing gas boilers with low or zero carbon heat sources, allowing rapid growth in the numbers of buildings connected to Bristol’s Heat Network.
FUNDING GAP ON HOMES EFFICIENCY
Time called on Green Homes Grant
Having slashed £1bn from its funding the government has now called time on the Green Homes Grant scheme. It closed to new applications at the end of March and the £300m previously allocated for the GHG will now go into a programme administered by local authorities, targeted at lower income households.
The government said many households were reluctant to apply for the grants - up to £10,000 - because they feared catching Covid from contractors coming into their homes. However, in some parts of the country installers were actually overwhelmed with demand.
Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng emphasised the transfer of cash to the local authority fund, rather than the scrapping of the GHG. “Upgrading the country’s homes with energy efficiency measures means we can cut emissions and save people money on their energy bills,” he said.
“Today’s funding boost will and tradespeople.”
Matthew Pennycook, the shadow minister for climate change, said: “The funding announced doesn’t even come close to plugging the investment gap created by the government’s decision to slash more than £1bn from its Green Homes Grant scheme and then scrap it altogether.”
Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive at UK Green Building Council, said: “Slashing more than £1bn in funding for energy efficiency is an absolute travesty, for households wanting to take action and for businesses trying to plan ahead, and has created yet another roadblock for decarbonising the country’s 29m homes. We have been left speechless by this news, which comes just days after the Environmental Audit Committee sent a clear message to government that if we are to meet our legally binding target to be net zero carbon by 2050, urgent action is needed to improve energy efficiency of homes this decade.”
mean even more households across England are able to access these vital grants through their local authority.
“This latest announcement takes our total energy efficiency spending to over £1.3bn in the next financial year, giving installers the certainty they need to plan ahead, create new jobs and train the next generation of builders, plumbers
Italy to offer ‘exemplar programme’ for efficiency
The new Italian Government is offering a grant worth 110 per cent of the total sum spent improving the energy efficiency of any home. Householders can install measures drawn from a long list of eligible measures, covering structural improvements that reduce energy consumption. This includes all types of insulation, glazing, heating and cooling systems, photovoltaics, lighting systems, and electric car recharging points.
It is already being billed as an exemplar programme for other EU countries as part of the European Green Deal initiative, leading to net zero carbon by 2050.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi, former president of the European Investment Bank, has introduced several options covering the extra financial compensation. For renovations originally costing the householder €100,000, the beneficiary can reduce the amount of tax paid by €22,000 over each of the next five years- effectively providing the householder with an annual reward of €2,000 for participating in the scheme. Those not paying taxes can receive the sum either directly or via the contractor employed to oversee the work.
In contrast, the now-defunct Green Homes Grant offered just 65 per cent of total householder costs, up to a maximum of £5,000. It also had a very limited and prescriptive list of qualifying items, excluding lighting, boilers or electric car recharging points.
But there is one way in which the 2021 UK Budget announcements do reflect the same concept of extra rewards for those who make investments that the Government wish to encourage. Chancellor Sunak has announced his intention to provide 130 per cent tax relief upon first year capital allowances for companies - which can certainly include major electrical and lighting retrofits.
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GOVERNMENT IGNORING ENERGY-SAVING MEASURES
Calculations ‘favouring’ heat pumps
Government calculations to assess which measures to prioritise, so as to reduce carbon emissions in homes, are deliberately promoting heat pumps over established energy-saving measures.
This is because the carbon savings for all types of heat pump are assessed on the basis that no additional improvements to existing energysaving measures would be made in the building in which it is installed.
This exclusion inflates the potential reduction on emissions that any heat pump can have. Consequently it encourages the installation of larger heat pumps than strictly necessary, adding considerably to the capital cost of reducing carbon emissions, by devaluing the savings that can be achieved by installing established energy saving measures.
These calculations have been revealed in debates in the House of Lords and a meeting between the energy minister Lord Callanan and crossbencher Lord Knebs (above), a former board member of the Committee on Climate Change. This was convened to discus the policy decision to divide products included in the Green Homes Grant scheme into primary and secondary measures.
Subsequently, an explanatory table, setting out the potential carbon dioxide savings ascribed by the Government to different product options, was sent to Lord Krebs by Selvin Brown MBE, the director in charge of energy efficiency at the BEIS department. The table reveals that a ground floor heat pump is deemed to be 17 times more valuable in carbon saving terms in the average house than installing triple glazing in windows, 23 times more than installing loft insulation or heating zone controls, and 39 times more than draft proofing.
In his covering note, Brown concedes that “these carbon savings do not reflect the cost of installing each measure.” Additionally, he concludes blithely that “more generally, a larger heat pump can be installed if insulation levels are low.”
In 2019, just over 40,000 heat pumps were installed in British homes. Last November Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised that by 2028, there would be 600,000 heat pumps being installed each year.
Industry prepares for first auction under new UK ETS
On May 19 the first ever auction of allowances available under the UK’s independent carbon emissions trading scheme (UK ETS) will take place. This will involve some 14,000 industrial or electricity generation sites.
The scheme is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting a cap on the levels heavy polluters can produce, forcing them to buy carbon credits to cover their annual outputs. For the past 15 years, these companies have been participants in the world’s largest and most influential carbon trading scheme, the EU: ETS.
UK participants have been warned that, for 2021, only 156m allowances will be issued. This is 5 per cent lower than the amounts that would have been available had the companies been able to continue operating within the EU scheme. In addition, the Business Department has announced that in two years time this number will be “tightened.” It is then set to decline by around 2.7 per cent each year “for the immediate future.”
In contrast, the legal position of the current (fourth) stage of the EU: ETS is that the total allowances available annually will remain constant until 2026.
Last year EU ETS emissions fell by 11.6 per cent for stationary emissions, and overall (including aviation) by 13 per cent. For the first time, total emissions from industry overtook those from electricity generators.
The UK will continue offering some free allowances to sectors likely to be damaged by competitors not bearing similar financial burdens, although the government is concerned “this may overcompensate for the risk of leakage.” It intends to use these free allowances as a “mechanism to support decarbonisation,” to incentivise heavy polluters like the steel industry to shift out of coking coal towards no fossil fuel electronic arc furnaces. If so, it may find itself out of alignment with the EU, which now seems perversely to be advising free allowances for smelting with coal, but not with electrolysis.
There is growing concern about the “inherent incompatibility for unpriced emissions” from companies based outside Europe. In June the European Commission is set to publish proposals for a new “carbon border adjustment mechanism” to encourage other countries to impose similar taxation arrangements which effectively increase the costs of emitting excess carbon. • The European Commission is also offering an open contract worth €5m, for consultants to create a viable “emissions trading dialogue” with China.
IN BRIEF
New executive officer at the BCIA
The Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) has appointed George Lee as its executive officer, following the retirement of Roger Borer who has been in post for the last four years.
Lee is an experienced Trade Association executive having previously been CEO at Highways Term Maintenance Association and Road Safety Markings Association, during which time he also founded stakeholder, public relations and communications consultancy Blue Symmetry.
New underfloor heating service
UnderFloor Climate Management, part of the Polypipe group, has set up a new service to work with architects, developers and contractors to help deliver integrated underfloor heating systems for commercial projects including residential apartment buildings, hotels, student accommodation and office developments. The service is headed up by Rachel Smith, UFCM managing director, who has a broad range of experience within the built environment sector. UFCM has been developed as a solution to the fast evolving landscape of the HVAC sector with Net Zero Carbon targets, a move towards more renewable energy sources and a changing building design process drastically affecting the demands on heating design.
Sewage to power London homes
Excess heat recovered from the sewage treatment process could be used to power more than 2,000 homes thanks to a new carboncutting partnership between Thames Water and Kingston upon Thames Council.
The 7GW scheme is the first of its kind in England. Under the plans, heat recovered from the final effluent of the sewage treatment process at Hogsmill will be captured before water is returned to the river, concentrated and supplied to local buildings.
news update
Energy efficiency jobs boom could be on the way
Almost 1.3m jobs in energy efficiency and low-carbon heating could be created if the Government delivers on its commitment to the Net Zero Balanced Pathway in the Sixth Carbon Budget, to which it committed at the end of last year.
This is a key finding of a research report, Greening the Giants, from think tank, Onward. In addition, there is the potential for the creation of 367,000 jobs in electric vehicles and 36,000 jobs in lowcarbon power.
In terms of economic value, this explosion of decarbonisation activity is the equivalent to an increase in annual turnover for low carbon heating and efficiency from £19bn in 2018 to £173bn in 2030, or for electric vehicles and infrastructure from £4bn to £158bn. In total, it could generate over £330bn in additional economic value by 2030.
The report finds that the Government will not deliver on its commitment to net zero by 2050 without taking radical action to decarbonise the 12 most carbonintensive industries, which together represent three-fifths of UK emissions and employ one in every five jobs.
The analysis finds that just 12 industries – which include aviation, agriculture, steel, manufacturing and construction – make up 62 per cent of all UK carbon emissions. However, decarbonising these industries will likely have a disruptive effect on the UK economy: these industries represent around 23 per cent of UK output and 21 per cent of current UK jobs.
The report puts forward 25 recommendations for the Government to green the giants and ease the transition for these high-emitting industries, while maximising the domestic economic potential of the transition to boost jobs and growth, including the requirement for a proportion of the materials in net zero technologies to be sourced from the UK supply chains, to reduce import emissions and boost UK industry, building on the offshore wind sector deal, which committed industry to using 60 per cent UK steel by 2030.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF IMPROVING HOSPITALS
Energy renovations cut hospital stays
Holistic energy renovations of office buildings increase productivity by 12 per cent while major energy renovations of hospitals and other health institutions reduce the average patient length of stay by 11 per cent.
These startling findings come from a study of actual energy saving programmes across 15 countries, undertaken by the Buildings Performance Institute for the campaign Renovate Europe. The study also examines the detailed health benefits of improving energyinefficient homes.
As well as personal economic benefits, researchers also concluded that society at large is also advantaged. A subsequent decline in absenteeism, plus increased productivity has been established. Elimination of poor-quality housing has been shown to be benefitting the French economy by as much as €20bn each year.
The analysts stress that these findings are not theoretical. They have been based on actual measured consequences of specific policies or programmes introduced in one or more of the 15 counties studied. But funder Renovate Europe stress that, in order to meet net zero carbon targets, the number of deep energy retrofits of commercial and residential buildings undertaken each year between now and 2050 will need to triple from the present day onwards.
Irish government passes legislation for 2050 net zero
The Irish government has approved legislation for a reduction in the country’s emissions of 51 per cent by the end of the decade and to reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
Two five-year carbon budgets will be proposed by the Climate Change Advisory Council to reach the 51 per cent reduction relative to a baseline of 2018. The government must adopt carbon budgets that are consistent with the Paris agreement and other international obligations. All forms of greenhouse gas emissions including biogenic methane will be included in the carbon budgets. However, it is up to government to decide on the trajectories for different sectors. The Government will consult on how to apply the carbon budget across the relevant sectors, and what each sector will contribute in a given five-year period.
The preparation of the 2021 Climate Action Plan will involve a major public consultation. The government is inviting climate scientists, experts and industry to share their databased technical proposals to support development of the Plan. It also wants to hear from households and communities about what Government can do to further support them as part of Ireland’s journey to net zero.
In the past two years emissions have fallen by 4 per cent and 6 per cent, but the Government says that Ireland needs to reduce emissions by at least 7 per cent per year to ensure a 51 per cent reduction by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.
The Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, said: “This is a landmark day for Ireland. We all know that Climate Change is already happening, and the time to act is now. The Bill we are publishing today affirms our ambition to be a global leader in this field. As we begin our journey towards net zero emissions, the government is committed to tackling the challenges, and embracing the opportunities, this transition can bring our economy, our society and our country. We must continue to act, across Government, as there is no time to waste when it comes to securing our future.”
