The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) is focused on sustainability and environmental issues at a governmental level. They recently called for nationwide action to save energy in UK homes. The Committee announced ways to speed up the transition from fossil fuels, increase energy security and tackle the current energy affordability and sustainability crises.
Watch the animation to find out why the UK needs to take action now.
Although the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee has recently helped millions of households with their energy bills, the Committee states that more could be done to save actual energy. They are urging a national drive to install insulation and solar power in homes, and reduce energy waste across the country.
Taking on board their guidance could help to keep energy bills low year after year, as well as cutting climate-changing emissions and reducing the UK’s reliance on fossil fuel imports.
Plans are in place to protect UK energy security by moving to alternative energy sources such as nuclear power. However, these may not happen quickly enough to help those living in fuel poverty. Many people could be facing winter after winter, living in cold, draughty homes.
That’s why the Committee is calling for at least one million energy efficiency installations a year to be carried out by 2025. After that, the ambitious target they’ve set is to insulate 2.5 million properties every year by 2030.
Over 13 million (59%) of homes in England alone have an EPC rating lower than C. A national mobilisation to upgrade and insulate leaky houses would be a huge step forward to save energy. The results would mean lower energy bills, reduced energy waste and warmer, healthier homes.
Alongside insulating homes, the Committee backs renewable technologies to power homes and businesses affordably and cleanly, while reducing the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels.
From wind power to tidal energy, the Committee puts renewable energy at the centre of the UK’s future. Their guidance includes requiring developers to fit solar PV as standard when building new homes.
The Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP, states,
“To reduce the UK’s demand on fossil fuels, we must stop consuming more than we need. We must fix our leaky housing stock, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and wastes our constituents’ hard-earned cash: we must make homes warmer and retain heat for longer … we would like to achieve an initial target of a million homes a year and more than double this by the end of the decade.”
“Bold action is needed now. The last year, with Russia’s aggression in Europe choking energy supplies, has shown us just how vulnerable our over-reliance on imported fossil fuels can make us. The Committee has today set out a number of clear recommendations to drive real change: I hope the Government will act swiftly to implement them.“
You can read the full report here
