In his recent speech at the Labour conference, prime minister Gordon Brown grandly announced the number of new eco-towns built with low- and zero-carbon emission homes would double to 10, which will amount to more than 50,000 new properties in all likelihood. Great – on the surface.
In the quest to reduce CO2 emissions – the latest government figures show the nation’s homes are responsible for producing 27 per cent of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions each year – who wouldn’t applaud such a bold gesture? But how is it going to be achieved when in the very same speech the prime minister said the target of cutting harmful emissions by 60 per cent on their 1990 level by 2050 probably doesn’t go far enough? Climate change experts claim that reductions of 90 per cent are required to prevent less than two degrees Celsius warming, at which point catastrophe looms.
The PM further said: “By investing in energy efficiency, renewables, carbon capture, clean fuels and new environmental technologies, I want Britain to lead in carbon-free vehicles, carbon-free homes and carbon-free industry,” he said. “And I want the new green technologies of the future to be the source of British jobs in British businesses.”
He may have said what he wants, but, worryingly what he didn’t say was how its going to be achieved. Indeed, the government’s avowed aim that all new build homes in the UK are zero-carbon – level six on the Code for Sustainable Homes - by 2016 is seen by many as a sheer folly that is unachievable. In Canada, for example, where temperatures reach -40° C, they aim to reach zero-carbon homes by 2030.
In the UK, the problem is that we do not have the renewables infrastructure in place nationally to be able to produce zero-carbon homes on a large scale. Micro-generation via tethering wind turbine to the gable end of houses, for example, is simply not going to generate sufficient energy to make a significant difference – which leads to the real issue at stake. Producing heat and power from renewables – solar, wind and wave – on a scale that will generate sufficient energy for our needs whilst reducing CO2 emissions is primarily a governmental responsibility.
Others, George Monbiot most significantly, have suggested several ways that our energy requirements can be fulfilled at a national level whilst reducing carbon emissions by 90 per cent. Half of it could be supplied by burning methane and burying the carbon dioxide captured – the so-called carbon-capture method – and the remaining 50 per cent would come from offshore wind and wave machines. The Carbon Trust estimates 20 per cent of Britain’s electricity requirements could be provided by sea power.
Fortunately, let’s not hope belatedly, the government has announced planning permission has been granted for Wave Hub, a £28m project off the north Cornish coast. Additionally, an existing wave-power project in the Orkneys is to be expanded, and plans are afoot to look at the feasibility and viability of harnessing tidal power at the mouth of the Severn River. Critics argue it’s too costly – around nine times the cost of gas-fired electricity – but costs will fall as economies of scale kick in.
All that’s not to say housebuilders and individual homeowners can sit back and let a clean carbon conscience come to it - that is simply akin to carbon offsetting i.e. why bother when you can pass on the problem or even pay to pass the problem on to someone else. Of course we all – developers and householders – can and must do our bit. A well-constructed and insulated new property, such as one adhering to PassivHaus standards, is capable of reducing domestic emissions by 88 per cent, recycled or carbon neutral construction materials, such as timber, locally sourced and from sustainable sources will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions in a manageable manner. In older homes as well as new ones micropower add-ons and in-house technologies will reduce each of our all too heavy carbon footprints.
All of which is not to damn the government outright. It is doing more than many others by introducing a draft bill to set legally binding targets to cut emissions. It is encouraging and right that plans to build eco-communities of low- and zero-carbon homes on such a scale are being announced, but let’s see the evidence that it’s not simply rhetoric and can be achieved. And let’s be clear. It will only be realised if the provision of larger renewables is at the forefront of government policy. Currently, so to speak, the horse is going to need to get up a gallop in order to catch up with the cart. Giddy up, Gordon.
