Richard Dixon: Time to force home green energy message

Published on Monday 13 April 2009 21:30

ENERGY efficiency just isn't sexy. There are no new power stations to cut the ribbon for and not many multi-million-pound investments to talk about, yet energy efficiency is the most important part of any energy policy.

This and the last government of Scotland have made many welcome positive statements on boosting renewable energy in all its forms, but we don't actually know how many power stations, wave machines and wind turbines we might need unless we know what the energy demand is going to be in the future – and we don't know that unless we know what we are going to do to use energy more efficiently. We were first promised a Scottish energy efficiency strategy in 2003 and six years on we are still waiting, an unfortunate case of first things last.

With people buying more and more electrical appliances, our use of energy in the home could soar if we do not get smart about saving energy. Yet we could cut emissions related to homes by at least 35 per cent by 2020 if we get our act in gear.

Energy prices are also important. A big part of last year's credit crunch was very high oil prices, something which is likely to return with a vengeance when the global economy gets moving again, feeding into higher electricity and gas prices for the householder.

Of course, there are lots of easy things people can do to save energy in the home, from draft proofing and insulation to buying efficient appliances and learning to use their heating system properly.

Most people have already got the message about saving the planet and their own money. A recent survey found that 90 per cent of people in Scotland say they use energy saving light bulbs where possible.

This looks like a good success and is to be followed up with a Europe-wide ban on most tungsten bulbs in a few years' time. The question is why it has taken us so long to ban something that wastes people's money and helps to destroy the planet?

We have spent years persuading people to make the right choice when the simpler route was to be decisive and ban the inefficient bulbs.

We are often reluctant to go for any option that infringes people's "choice" even when they choose to waste their own money and needlessly contribute to climate change emissions. A good example is cavity wall insulation. About a third of all the energy escaping from an average home goes out through the walls.

Cavity wall insulation can reduce this dramatically, cutting 160 off an average three-bed household's annual heating bill and saving around 800kg of carbon dioxide.

My parents had their house treated in the 1970s and many people have taken up government grants to help them get it done. Yet there are still an estimated 750,000 properties in Scotland with a suitable cavity sitting there unfilled, leaking energy, haemorrhaging cash and creating climate change.

There is lots more to do in comprehensive schemes to help people make their homes energy efficient, but there must come a point when we realise that an energy wasting home is no longer just someone's private choice, it is a problem for all of us: running an energy wasteful home should be as socially unacceptable as drink driving.

Incentives, advice and persuasion are all good and necessary, but the urgency of reducing climate change emissions suggests that we need to think about something more directive. How do we go beyond a voluntary take up of 60 or 70 per cent and make sure that 100 per cent of Scotland's homes are made energy efficient ?

Thinking about cavity wall insulation: it is pretty easy to work out which properties are suitable for this treatment and the end result will be warmer homes, which are cheaper to heat and more pleasant to live in. When it is clear that persuasion and incentives have not worked with a small minority, let's just get on and do it. As the householder's energy bills will be smaller, the cost can be recovered over time from these savings. In some ways it even takes all the hassle out of the process because you get notified and then someone just turns up and does the work.

At the end of this year, the world's nations are going to sign up to new targets on reducing climate change emissions at the United Nations conference in Copenhagen.

If they listen to the scientists, then they will set tough targets that will mean changes in many areas of our lives. We will have moved into an era where needless carbon emissions will be judged anti-social, irresponsible, perhaps even criminal. We will certainly need our politicians to be decisive.

There will no doubt be many good things about the energy efficiency strategy, when it finally turns up, and there is already lots of good work going on, but delivering on our climate targets means we need more, faster and tougher.

At a time when people are worried about their household bills, and with tens of thousands of builders out of work, a joined-up programme of energy efficient retrofitting of people's homes is a clear winner. The carbon savings to be gained are tremendous. If we have to step on a few recalcitrant toes in the process, that is a small price to pay to save the planet.

&#149 Dr Richard Dixon is director, WWF Scotland