Europe UK (Commonwealth Union) – The early 2010s saw many Britons take advantage of a scheme that provided a free service filling cavity wall with a foam and lofts with insulation, a scheme that was designed to reduce carbon emissions, which helped British households conserve heat. Simple acts such as double-glazing windows as they are a primary source of heat escaping and wall insulation can provide a huge saving to many British households.
Despite many of these efforts a new Imperial College London paper has found that measures taken in the UK are lagging behind many European nations.
UK residents have moved into winter with homes having some of the lowest efficiencies across Europe, and the authors of the paper state that the government can go further in assisting people.
The results were revealed in a briefing paper from Imperial College London experts known as Decarbonising Buildings: Insights From Across Europe, published by the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial.
European nations such as Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy and the Netherlands have implemented several programmes and incentives to lower residents’ energy use and costs.
Dr Salvador Acha, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, who is the lead author of the report indicated that the report reveals the UK’s 28.6 million homes are some of the lowest in energy efficiency in Europe where heat escapes up to 3 times higher than on the continent, resulting in being people poorer and colder.
“At a time of increased energy bills and inflation, people in the UK can’t afford to lose energy due to inefficient housing, but unfortunately energy policy in this area has been nil for many years. With the continued climate crisis, and the fact that our homes account for 30 per cent of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, the planet can’t afford this lack of action either,” said Dr Acha.
