Building a low-carbon recovery is a key strategy in the Budget proposals
A reduction of 34% in UK carbon emissions compared with 1990 has been set in the recent Budget, supported by £50 billion of investment over the next three years. That figure includes an additional £10.4 million made available in the Budget, which the Budget report says will secure new jobs and new business and place the UK at the forefront of a worldwide low-carbon recovery.
The statement reports that the UK is on track to meet its carbon budgets, with emissions expected to fall by about a third by 2020 since 1990.
CIBSE’s chief executive Stephen Matthews responded; ‘These proposals could provide a much needed boost to the low-carbon sector and create many new jobs if they are implemented properly. It is excellent news that the Government has committed to a legally binding target to cut carbon emissions by 34% by 2020 as part of the world’s first carbon budget.’
Nearly half of the £50 billion planned investment is directed at public transport and low-carbon and electric vehicles (£23.2 billion). £8.9 billion is directed at energy efficiency, described as the easiest way to cut carbon emissions and saving households and businesses money on bills.
As part of its polices, the Government is implementing a £6.9 billion home energy saving programme to retrofit existing housing. Over a million houses are estimated to have been insulated over the past year. The aim is to retrofit the entire housing stock by 2030 and reduce emissions from existing buildings to nearly zero by 2050.
The Budget announced £365 million of new spending for energy efficiency across the economy to reduce carbon emissions. There is £100 million to improve insulation for social housing, £100 million for building new homes to higher standards, £100 million for low-cost loans through the Carbon Trust and £65 million for loans to install energy-efficiency measures in public buildings. There is also £6 billion to help deliver a 10-fold increase in renewable energy to meet the UK 2020 renewables targets.
Small-scale renewable and community energy is also to receive £45 million more to help bring forward around 13 000 installations and prepare the renewable supply chain to benefit when feed-in tariffs and the renewable-heat incentive are introduced in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
