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The energy we use to heat, light and power our homes produces 27% of the UK's CO2 emissions. UK homes currently waste 750m tonnes of carbon dioxide each year at a cost of £5 billion each year and it’s estimated that this will increase to £72 billion by 2020. Improving energy efficiency in buildings is the cheapest, most effective way to cut climate-destroying CO2 emissions and reduce the amount of fuel we use.

The UK's biggest source of carbon dioxide (CO2) is burning fossil fuels in power stations. Two thirds of the energy produced in these power stations is wasted from the cooling towers – that’s enough to meet the total heat demand (heating and hot water) of all the buildings in the UK combined.

To reduce the requirement for grid-based electricity and lower this emissions statistic, microgeneration (or ‘decentralised electricity’) will increasingly be used to generate low carbon electricity close to where it will be used.

The Low Carbon Buildings Programme provides grants for microgeneration technologies such as solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, solar thermal hot water and heat pumps. Microgeneration is already the norm in European nations including Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. It’s also increasingly incorporated into buildings in the UK: the town of Woking, for example, has cut emissions from council buildings by 77% through use of on-site renewable energy sources.

“There is huge scope for improving energy efficiency and promoting the uptake of existing low carbon technologies like PV, fuel cells and carbon sequestration.”
Tony Blair, 2004