The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has called for a national “war effort” mobilisation to tackle the energy and sustainability crisis facing the UK and move away from fossil fuels. Chairman the Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP explains that the clock is ticking
We have less than 30 years to go until the deadline for net zero Britain. This may seem like a long time but in order to decarbonise our economy, now is the time that we must start making the tough and lasting choices to wean ourselves off fossil fuels and get used to our low-carbon future. It will be a significant challenge: we remain dependent on fossil fuels for 78% of our energy needs.
Recently, the Environmental Audit Committee, which I chair, published a report examining how we can accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and secure energy supplies in the wake of Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and his weaponisation of gas supplies.
Renewable energy efforts must be fully harnessed to tackle the energy and sustainability crisis
We called for efforts on expanding renewable energy to be redoubled to tackle the energy and sustainability crisis: from inserting solar panels on new builds as standard to onshore wind being more rapidly rolled out now that the de facto ban has been relaxed. There are also major opportunities for tidal energy to contribute to the UK’s energy security baseload; after all, we are an island nation with the highest tide in Europe.
We also need to address energy consumption. All too often, we are using more energy than we need. This has been brought into sharp focus during the colder months: energy bills are rocketing sky-high while many of our homes are simply not retaining the heat well enough. In England alone, over 13m (or 59%) of homes are below EPC rated C, with heat billowing out of poorly insulated roofs and walls, and draughty windows and doors.
National mobilisation for energy efficiency
It is not the first time our committee has called for greater attention to address the energy efficiency, and the need is getting more urgent. The committee has now demanded a national mobilisation for energy efficiency. The environmental arguments for doing so are clear: if we are relying less on the energy which mostly comes from fossil fuels, we can wean ourselves away from them more swiftly to meet our environmental targets.
But it also makes enormous economic sense, so people spend less of their money on energy bills. The government’s intervention on energy bills is welcome, preventing people from finding themselves in fuel poverty, but the longer-term fix of energy efficiency improvements is desperately needed.
Government promises towards energy efficiency fall short of £9bn promised
The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement promised to dedicate more funding towards energy efficiency, but this remains short of the £9bn promised in the Conservative manifesto in 2019. We need more investment. That is why our committee called for a proportion of the Energy Profits Levy to be allocated immediately to help fund energy efficiency improvements.
With policy initiatives in recent years falling short of their promise – such as the poorly implemented Green Homes Grant – the building and retrofit sectors need clarity; clarity to invest and innovate, and to upskill and hire more people into green jobs.
I welcome the announcement in the Autumn Statement of an Energy Efficiency Taskforce, and the focus on energy efficiency in the independent Net Zero Review published by Chris Skidmore MP, a member of the Environmental Audit Committee. I hope they will help to mark a genuine turning point. The building sector must have the opportunity to feed regularly into this taskforce’s work, and to support the levels of energy efficiency improvements needed so our housing stock can be better insulated on the path to net zero.
Addressing energy efficiency in our buildings has been dubbed the “low-hanging fruit” for a long time. It must no longer be an issue towards the bottom of Whitehall’s ‘to-do list’: we need to insulate ourselves from global fossil fuel price shocks and insulate ourselves from the dangerous consequences of climate change. This starts at home.
Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP
Chair
Environmental Audit Committee
Tel: +44 (0)20 7219 8890
