In its monthly column, Climate Action Stokesley and Villages looks at how improved home insulation and increased renewable energy would reduce energy bills and increase energy security
Energy cost increases were largely triggered by rising wholesale gas prices, partly caused by the war in Ukraine, on top of prices that had already risen by 400 per cent. Although a global issue, things are worse in the UK due to historical policies which chose the short-term cheapest options, rather than the best climate change or energy security options, and a market that ties electricity prices to gas, assuming that gas would always be cheapest.
Friends of the Earth has recognised that many of the solutions to the energy crisis are also the right solutions to tackle the climate crisis, so launched the “United for Warm Homes” campaign at the beginning of September.
This campaign aims to persuade the government to do what is necessary to support people through this difficult time while making sure that the UK invests for the longer term.
Changes in gas and electricity wholesale prices
United for Warm Homes is calling for:
1. Financial support
The government has already put in place financial support capping the unit and standing charges of gas and electricity, but we will not comment on this in an environment article.
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2. Insulation
Compared to the rest of Europe, UK houses need more energy to heat due to their poor insulation. We need to rapidly get back to the level of home insulation that was being achieved by the UK in 2012 when more than two million homes were being insulated annually. Only 100,000 homes were in 2021. If 2012 levels had been maintained, at least ten million homes would have been protected from soaring energy costs.
Immediately all new homes need to be built with sufficient insulation. Sadly the 2015 scrapping of the zero-carbon home standard means that more than 1.5 million houses were built without protecting the owners from catastrophic energy bills.
These measures will create new green jobs and cut energy bills immediately when installed.
3. Energy system
The cost of renewables is steadily falling, already the cheapest source of electricity in 2021, and today renewable electricity is six times cheaper than non-renewable electricity.
Relying on new UK gas won’t help energy security for more than ten years and will be more expensive than renewables – and the 2030s are when we need to stop burning gas to meet net zero carbon dioxide emissions. Nuclear has very high construction costs, takes 20 years to build and currently has no long-term waste storage. On-shore wind or solar only take months to build, but years for planning, off-shore wind takes time to construct, but they are our quickest and cheapest options to mend our broken energy system.
Expansion of UK renewable electricity generation will reduce future electricity costs, increase UK energy security, and help the UK to achieve net zero.
Achieving United for Warm Homes will tackle our current energy crisis, provide lasting energy security into the future and accelerate the UK’s transition to Net Zero.
See unitedforwarmhomes.uk and get in touch with Climate Action Stokesley and Villages to get involved – https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org.
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