Fighting climate change in homes and communities
A range of initiatives to make homes greener were today set out by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, who urged the need to take the fight against climate change into our homes and living rooms.
Part of the package includes the ACT ON CO2 Advice Line – a one stop shop for free, tailored, impartial advice from the Energy Saving Trust on how to reduce your carbon footprint.
The Government is providing the Energy Saving Trust with more than £100 million over the next three years to deliver a broader programme for green homes. Over the next 12 months, a network of one stop advice centres will be rolled out across the country.
To demonstrate how communities can live a low carbon lifestyle the Green Neighbourhoods initiative will give a green makeover to up to 100 neighbourhoods in England with an aim to reduce their carbon footprints by more than 60 per cent.
This initiative will be delivered by the Energy Saving Trust and backed by potentially more than £10 million over the next three years from the Government’s domestic Environmental Transformation Fund.
To receive funding, neighbourhood groups will need to join together and commit substantial levels of funding from their own resources to help transform the environmental performance of a street or local area. This will demonstrate to others what can be achieved and how much money householders can save in the longer term by working together and taking a holistic approach to energy saving.
The CERT (Carbon Emissions Reduction Target) scheme, which came into effect yesterday, doubles previous obligations by energy companies to help people make their homes more energy efficient and reduce household emissions. The total investment is estimated at around £1 billion a year for three years. Forty per cent of the work to reduce emissions will be targeted at the over 70s and people on low incomes.
It is estimated that once all the measures are installed under the CERT scheme it will save 4.2MtCO2/year – the equivalent of removing 1.45 million cars from the road.
Mr Benn said:
“Individuals are responsible for almost half of emissions, so people have to start taking action in their own lives if we are to meet the challenge of climate change.
“But there is a lot of information out there and the Government recognises that it can be hard to know where to start. These initiatives will help address that.”
Further information
- People can call the ACT ON CO2 Advice line on 0800 512 012, or visit the Energy Saving Trust website at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
- The news release contains additional information about each initiative.
- The Defra website contains information on climate change and energy, tackling household carbon emissions, household energy supplier obligations and individual and community action.
Page published: 2 April 2008