Climate change: Increasing the energy efficiency of our homes should be a win-win-win – Scotsman comment

31 days to Cop26: While greenhouse gas emissions in the UK have almost halved since 1990, those associated with our houses have fallen by only about 14 per cent.

Gas boilers will no longer be fitted in new homes from 2025 (Picture: Joe Giddens/PA)

The main problem is that most people use fossil fuel gas boilers to heat their homes and these are expensive to replace with alternatives like heat pumps. Despite this, the installation of gas boilers in new homes is to be banned from 2025 as part of the transition to a net-zero carbon economy.

However, there is a simpler and highly cost-effective way to dramatically cut emissions – improve the energy efficiency of our homes or, in other words, the insulation.

New research by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit has found that the average gas bill for some of the least energy-efficient homes will now be up to £246 a year higher than some of the most energy-efficient ones following the recent global price rises.

So getting better insulation and fixing drafty windows and doors should pay for itself fairly quickly. Such steps would go a long way to help reduce fuel poverty and should be a priority for councils and other providers of social housing.

Furthermore, anyone buying a new home should consider how much it will cost to heat and also how much it may cost to bring the property up to acceptable energy-efficiency standards. This is a factor that will increasingly affect house prices – and for good reason.

If we waste less energy, we can be both warmer and wealthier, while reducing our contribution to the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. So it should be a win-win-win.

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