Warning over energy supplies

RELYING on electricity for heating homes and powering cars as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions could pose "enormous risks" to energy supplies, an industry body warned yesterday.

The Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA), said a switch to electricity could undermine targets to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

A report by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Surrey, commissioned by the CHPA, said using more electricity for transport and heating would require rapid and sustained progress on building new, low-carbon power supplies.