The UK won鈥檛 be able to meet its 2050 climate change targets unless much more is done to cut emissions from heating buildings. The government鈥檚 latest proposals for doing so have been criticised as inadequate.
鈥淭hey are staggeringly unambitious,鈥� says Jan Rosenow at the , an organisation dedicated to speeding up the clean energy transition.
Unless more is done, it will take about 1500 years to meet a heating target for 2050 recommended by the UK鈥檚 official advisers on cutting emissions, Rosenow calculates.
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鈥淚f this is all there is, then it would be disastrous,鈥� says Richard Lowes at the University of Exeter, UK.
Last year, the UK government set a legally binding target of meeting net-zero emissions by 2050, meaning that the country needs to drastically cut its emissions and offset any that remain, leaving a net total of zero emissions.
Unlike some other countries such as Sweden, the UK still relies heavily on fossil fuels, mainly natural gas, for heating its poorly insulated homes. To meet its target, the UK needs to upgrade its buildings to make them more energy efficient and switch to renewable energy sources.
The best way to do this is to electrify heating by installing heat pumps. 鈥淓verybody who looks at this comes to the same conclusion,鈥� says Rosenow.
Heat pumps transfer existing heat energy in the air or ground to water for heating radiators, or for baths and showers. Essentially, they work like a refrigerator in reverse.
The UK鈥檚 official adviser on meeting its climate targets, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), has said the aim should be to install up to . However, not nearly enough is being done to achieve this.
So far, only around 60,000 heat pumps have been installed under the current government scheme, the Renewable Heat Incentive, says Lowes. The total will probably be just 75,000 when the RHI ends in 2021.
In fact, more new homes are being connected to the gas grid than having heat pumps installed, says Lowes, meaning when it comes to the decarbonisation of home heating.
A 听dated 28 April has now set out proposals for what happens after 2021. There are some positive aspects to it, says Rosenow.
For instance, people who install heat pumps can apply for an upfront grant of 拢4000 to help cover the costs rather than only getting a payment after the installation, as is currently the case. The high upfront costs deter many people, he says.
However, under the new proposals, which cover the period 2022 to 2024, funding would be capped at 拢50 million a year. This level of funding would support 12,500 installations per year. At this rate, it would take 1520 years to get to 19 million pumps.
鈥淭he current proposed funding is clearly insufficient,鈥� says Jenny Hill, who works on heat decarbonisation at the CCC. 鈥淭here is a great opportunity here to boost it, particularly as many of the other proposals under the scheme look sensible.鈥�
There have been reports of teething problems with heat pumps, such as some people getting higher bills. That can happen if heat pumps are installed in poorly insulated homes, says Rosenow, which is yet another reason why improving insulation is important. He says he has halved his own heating costs since .
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy did not respond to questions by time of publication.
