The surprise decision in the budget to drop household appliances from the ‘zero carbon home’ definition means up to a third of household carbon emissions are now exempt.
In the Treasury’s ‘Plan for Growth’, launched alongside the budget, it announced that energy used by appliances in homes will not have to be generated from renewable sources, and the zero carbon definition will only cover heating, lighting and water. The above diagram from the Energy Saving Trust shows that this could omit around a third of a home’s CO2 emissions.
This is the latest and most significant watering down of the definition since its inception, still four years before it becomes compulsory for all new homes in 2016. The move shows further signs of successful lobbying from the house building industry to reduce standards as they struggle to achieve the required built performance.
BioRegional Director of One Planet Communities Pooran Desai reacted to the news pragmatically, feeling that household appliances should be outside the remit of housebuilders anyway. However, he stressed that the omission should be complemented by stricter regulations on the appliance manufacturers, to ensure their impact is reduced appropriately.
If this doesn’t happen, the gap left in our carbon reduction targets by this latest move will need to be filled by further tackling the emissions from our existing housing stock or further decarbonising of our electricity supply.
Existing Chief executive of the UK Green Building Council Paul King however responded in anger, “In the space of two weeks, this government has gone from a firm commitment on zero carbon homes, to a watered down policy. A zero carbon home will no longer do what it says on the tin. The world leading commitment that new homes would not add to the carbon footprint of our housing stock from 2016 has been scrapped despite a remarkable consensus between industry and NGOs in support of it.”
He went further to suggest this latest move not only threatens the government’s green targets, but also their push for growth – “Thanks to a crude de-regulation agenda we now have a policy that is not only anti-green but anti-growth. Low carbon construction has been one of the few sectors showing genuine green shoots of growth. This U-turn will result in loss of confidence leading to lower investment, less innovation, fewer green jobs and fewer carbon reductions. It is a backward step by a government that wanted to be seen as ‘the greenest ever’.”
