Government told to take more action on low carbon buildings

The government has been too “timid” in developing policies to progress towards net zero, climate change advisors have warned.

In a report on the government’s progress in reducing emissions, the Climate Change Committee said that initiatives announced so far are “not yet in step with the urgency of the challenge”.

The report highlighted several areas of housing and planning policy in which the advisors think more needs to be done.

It said that the heat and buildings strategy, which has been delayed by a year from its original due date of summer 2020, needs to “signal a clear route to expanding heat pump and heat network supply chains now”.

The report warned that there are still “critical questions” to resolve around who pays for the decarbonisation of buildings through energy-efficiency retrofits and green heating systems.

The CCC said it wants sales of gas boilers to all homes and businesses phased out by 2033 and replaced by green alternatives including heat pumps, which can cost up to £35,000 each.

The government has said that it wants to install 600,000 heat pumps each year by 2028 in the 24.5 million homes that need them.

The report also said: “The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) is not fully supporting local government to play its part in the transition to Net Zero.

“Progress has fallen short to date on ensuring that building standards are fit for purpose and properly enforced. The current Planning Bill does not ensure that developments and infrastructure are compliant with Net Zero and appropriately resilient to climate change. It would be serious were this opportunity to be missed.”

Responding to the report, the UK Green Building Council said that action to decarbonise homes is “simply not happening quickly enough”.

The group’s chief executive Julie Hirigoyen said: “As the report highlights, progress in upgrading our new build standards and enforcing them properly has fallen behind.”

Hirigoyen said that the government “must seize the opportunity offered by the new Planning Bill to deliver development and infrastructure that is compliant with Net Zero and resilient to climate change.”

She added: “In order to successfully achieve our net zero target, it is clear that a national retrofit programme to deliver energy efficiency measures and prepare our homes for the impacts of climate change must be delivered in the next 10-15 years.”

See also: Government action in overheating is needed.Now.

The government’s net zero strategy, which will outline how the government intends to bring emissions down to 78% of 1990 levels by 2035, is due to be published in the autumn.

But the CCC said that credible policies so far currently cover only around 20% of the required reduction in emissions, adding that the strategy needs to address “unanswered questions” on how net zero will be funded in a “fair way”.

Among the report’s criticisms was that the Department of Transport had not set out any plans for limiting growth in demand for aviation.

The report also slammed several other government departments including the Treasury, and the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for “lagging behind” others in their approach to cutting carbon.

The CCC’s report did praise the government for committing to an “ambitious path” to net zero.

It said the covid-19 pandemic had shown that the government has the ability to act with “pace and scale when it is required”, adn that people are “willing to support change when they have the information before them”.

But it said that it is “hard to discern any comprehensive strategy” in climate plans announced in the last 12 months, warning that the UK “continues to blunder into high-carbon choices”.

The UK is set to host the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.