Sustainability Committee

Inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales: Residential Carbon Reduction

Response from the Energy Saving Trust

Introduction

This is the submission of the Energy Saving Trust to the first topic - residential carbon reduction - of the Sustainability Committee’s inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales.

The Energy Saving Trust was established as part of the Government’s action plan in response to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which addressed worldwide concerns on sustainable development issues. We are the UK’s leading organisation working through partnerships towards the sustainable and efficient use of energy by households, communities and the road transport sector and one of the key delivery agents for the Government’s climate change objectives.

The Energy Saving Trust operates a number of programmes in Wales including Energy Saving Trust Advice Centres (ESTACs), support for domestic energy efficiency activities to all 22 local authorities in Wales and a pilot renewable energy advice (REAS) through the West Wales Eco Centre. The agreed development of our Welsh ESTACs into a Sustainable Energy Network for Wales will offer a significant expansion of service, providing energy efficiency, renewables and low carbon transport advice to not just consumers but also community groups and small businesses operating in domestic properties. The service will be launched in December 07, with full service in April 08, with targets requiring a three-fold increase in consumer contacts, reaching over 200,000 people a year.

Our response follows the format and order of the consultation document.

General questions

1. Is the proposed 3 per cent annual reduction target by 2011 'in areas of devolved competence’ sufficient to enable Wales to make its full contribution to meeting UK-wide targets? If not, what targets should be put in place?

The UK initially set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 per cent (against a 1990 baseline) by 2010, which went beyond its 2008-2012 commitments under Kyoto.

The UK Climate Change Bill proposes targets of at least 26-32 per cent by 2020 and a 60 per cent reduction by 2050 to be placed in statute. We believe that the interim target should be at least 32 per cent, which whilst challenging should be achievable through the right policy mix.

The Energy Saving Trust has previously estimated that the achievable annual potential for household carbon savings in the UK is 14MtC through existing technologies, excluding solid wall insulation, which equates to around 34 per cent of household energy use. So clearly a 3 per cent annual reduction in the household sector is achievable. Without detailed analysis and modelling across all sectors it is difficult to determine whether the 3 per cent target is sufficient to enable Wales to make its full contribution to meeting UK-wide targets. In this respect, we believe that the critical actions that the National Assembly for Wales needs to undertake in the household sector are to:

Increase awareness and provide advice to all individuals on the carbon saving actions they can undertake.
Incentivise local authorities and community groups to help householders take action.
Ensure that Welsh householders benefit sufficiently from measures undertaken through the Carbon Reduction Emiisions Target (CERT).

However, we believe that it is important that the contribution that Wales will make in the short term is not considered in isolation from the contribution that it will make to the UK’s longer term climate change targets. It is therefore important that Wales also sets itself longer term objectives.

The experience of the Climate Change Programme Review (managed by Defra) has shown that the focus on a particular timeframe (for example the UK’s 2010 target) results in a sub-optimal analysis of options, including rejection of policies that have minimal impact in the given timeframe. Thus, we believe it is important for a regular series of targets to be set from now to 2050. In this context the Committee might be interested to note that our analysis suggests that the annual straight-line percentage reduction required to achieve the UK 60% goal is 1.7%. However, it is important to take early action now, particularly when there are many cost-effective measures that can be implemented as it will become more difficult to deliver reductions in later years, which will require the development of new technologies.

2. Should the emission reduction target be based on Welsh consumption or production, or both (ie should it take into consideration the carbon dioxide generated in Wales (production), or the carbon dioxide emission that Wales’ residents are responsible for, regardless of their source (consumption))?

We strongly believe that the emissions reduction target should be set in terms of consumption. If individuals in Wales are responsible for a specific level of emissions then they should be responsible for reducing those emissions irrespective of where the power was originally generated. Such an approach is also consistent with Wales’ commitment to contribute equitably to the UK’s climate change targets.

Questions specific to household emissions of carbon dioxide

3. What particular challenges does Wales face in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from households, and how can these challenges be overcome?

Wales faces a number of challenges in relation to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from households. Many of these challenges are consistent with those faced by the rest of the UK.

Given that the long term future for energy efficiency in consumer markets will rely to a large extent on securing greater involvement of individual consumers and communities, perhaps the largest challenge is to convert existing high levels of concern about climate change, energy costs and energy security into personal action. Our research shows that while almost 90 per cent of people recognise that action is needed to address climate change caused by their own energy use, only about 20 per cent are actively making significant changes to their own energy consumption.

The task is no longer to persuade them that climate change is real and serious, rather it is to persuade them that individual and community action is a key part of the solution, and that such action is not too difficult or expensive.

There is already a considerable amount of work underway in Wales to overcome this challenge, and the National Assembly for Wales should be congratulated on a number of recent developments, including the provision of funding (together with Defra) to launch our Sustainable Energy Network in Wales. We currently provide energy efficiency advice to consumers but from December this year we will be able to provide energy efficiency, renewables and low carbon transport advice to consumers, community groups and small businesses working in domestic premises. We have piloted this approach in other parts of the UK, and have been able to deliver a step change in the number of contacts and the subsequent carbon savings.

We believe that the Sustainable Energy Network will be crucial in reducing consumer energy demand, including signposting householders to CERT, while also increasing demand for micro-renewables, both of which will help deliver Welsh Assembly Government targets.

However, there is still considerable potential to do more to overcome this barrier. In particular in relation to local authorities and schools:

Local authorities are community leaders, as well as significant providers of housing, and consumers of energy, for this reason we include the following specific recommendations to the household sector although we appreciate there will be a separate inquiry on the public sector:

Local authorities should be incentivised to promote the sustainable use of energy in the communities they serve by making carbon reduction in the community a target.
Local authorities’ role in promoting sustainable energy in their communities should include the facilitation of energy efficiency in private housing. Such activity could be supported by a centrally financed fund for local authority council tax incentives for the installation of insulation, which can leverage off the energy suppliers’ CERT activity.
Local authorities should be provided with additional strategic support to help them deliver on sustainable energy. Existing strategic support provided to a number of local authorities through EST (funded by the Assembly) should be rolled out across Wales.
The designation of 2 low carbon cities/towns in Wales. Such an approach would necessitate providing local authorities with the ambition and tools to become leaders and focal points for action in their communities, making local authorities a channel for support and delivery of energy efficiency microgeneration and low carbon transport.

Recent research undertaken by EST (due to be published in two weeks) confirms that education has the potential to put in place the necessary foundations for delivering energy-related behaviour change. The report identifies the importance of schools having access to external resources (including trained professionals) and access to additional support to help them identify the most appropriate resources. Current provision of extra expert resources for schools is dependent on proximity to a local or community resources such as the West Wales Eco-Centre or Awel Amen Tawe. There is no Wales-wide provision of additional expert resource.

4. To what extent has the Welsh Assembly Government be successful in utilising the powers available to it in order to reduce household carbon dioxide emissions?

As noted above, we believe that the Welsh Assembly Government should be congratulated for the recent use of the powers available to it - particularly in relation to funding provide for SEN. In relation to reducing carbon emissions in the household sector there are a number of other examples of the Assembly successfully using the powers available to it, for example the recent microgeneration strategy for Wales, recent planning guidance for climate change, and the 2011 zero carbon new build aspiration.

However, given the substantial powers available to the Welsh Assembly Government in relation to carbon emissions reductions in the household sector, we believe that more could be done in terms of using the Assembly’s existing powers to deliver a low carbon Wales. Specific examples are discussed in greater detail in our responses to questions 3 and 6.

5. Could alternative targeting of Welsh Assembly Government financial resources lead to greater household emissions reduction than is currently being achieved? If so, where could additional resources lead to greatest impact?

The priority in meeting future energy requirements in a secure, efficient and environmentally friendly manner must be to reduce the level of demand. Demand side activity can be implemented far quicker than changes in the supply side and will allow delivery of carbon reductions with lower levels of low carbon supply. Energy efficiency also helps improve security of supply by reducing the demand for primary energy, and hence dependence on supply side investment and energy imports.

Most energy saving options are more cost effective than investing in any new supply capacity. Energy efficiency also plays an important contribution in alleviating fuel poverty. It should therefore always be the number one solution. Energy demand from individuals in Wales accounts for approximately half of Wales’ energy demand We therefore believe that the consumer sectors should be addressed as the first priorities.

Home energy efficiency in the UK is already a success story with investment in improvements in UK households having doubled energy efficiency since 1970. These changes now reduce carbon emissions by 30 MtC per annum, saving consumers £11.5 M every year. This is three times the carbon saving from the whole nuclear industry and almost as much as the emissions of the UK’s current fleet of coal fired power stations.

However, consumer energy demand continues to grow, largely due to increasing household temperatures and the proliferation of consumer electronics. Therefore more can and must be done.

We believe that the continued targeting of financial resources at SEN in Wales is vital and will result in significantly greater household emissions reductions in Wales that is currently the case.

We believe that additional funds should also be allocated to local authorities to help deliver greater responsibilities in this area and to education (as proposed and described above). Consideration should also be given to providing additional support to reducing the carbon emissions from newbuild through voluntary initiatives and in light of decisions on devolving building regulations to Wales.

We believe that further consideration should also be given to the provision of advice to SMEs in Wales, particularly in the context of homeworking.

6. What examples from other administrations (devolved, UK and overseas), where other means have been used to achieve reductions in household carbon dioxide emissions, could be adopted in Wales under the current powers?

There are a number of examples that have been used in other administrations to achieve reductions in household carbon dioxide emissions that could be adopted in Wales under current powers, these include:

Signing up to code for sustainable homes - as has happened in England
Giving greater consideration to the role of education in shaping energy-related consumer behaviour - as is the case in Scotland
Provision of financial support for microgeneration - as per UK, NI and Scotland (for further details about support for microgeneration in Scotland please see: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/schri)
Targets for local authorities - as in England.

The Energy Saving Trust has offices in each of the countries in the UK and would happily facilitate meetings between our teams in each country and members of the Committee if this would be useful.

7. In the context of the Government of Wales Act 2006, which further means of reducing carbon emissions from households could only be achieved with the introduction of further legislative competence for the National Assembly for Wales.

It is our strong belief that the majority of actions needed to deliver significant carbon emissions reductions in the household sector can be undertaken within the existing powers of the National Assembly for Wales. One obvious exception here however is building regulations. However, CLG has already set a challenging target of zero carbon newbuild by 2016, and delivering a more challenging target than this for Wales might be difficult, although with appropriate support Wales could lead the way on this.

8. If specific carbon dioxide emissions targets are to be set for Wales, should those targets be subdivided into shares by sector? If so, what share of the total should reductions by households comprise?

We believe that sectoral targets would be useful. Without detailed modelling work it is difficult to suggest what the target for the household sector should be in relation to that of other sectors. However, we believe that it would be sensible to expect households to make at least an equitable contribution to overall targets, although we note that it is more cost-effective to deliver carbon savings in the household sector than in any other. In this context we believe that the Committee might find the Defra report 'Synthesis of Climate Change Policy Appraisals, January 2007’ of interest, this can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/ukccp/pdf/synthesisccpolicy-appraisals.pdf

As noted above we believe that carbon emissions from the household sector should be addressed as a first priority. Action in this sector also meets a number of other energy policy objectives, such as security of supply, and tackling fuel poverty.