UK Climate change programme and domestic sector end-use efficiency

Information in the UK Climate Change Programme suggests that carbon savings in the domestic sector from end-use efficiency improvements could amount to some 4.7MtC/yr in 2010, based on allowances for improvements to the building regulations, residential energy efficiency improvements and appliance standards and labelling. This paper discusses detailed scenarios that have been developed using the BREHOMES model of the energy use of the housing stock to study the implications of this level of saving. These include a Reference scenario, in which current trends continue, and an Efficiency scenario, in which energy efficiency improvements happen as rapidly as seems feasible. The difference between them in 2010 is not much greater than 4.7MtC/yr, suggesting that this level of saving, whilst achievable, is ambitious. Nevertheless, cost-effectiveness calculations indicate that it would be economically justifiable when viewed as a national investment. This leads to the question of how far present plans go towards achieving the savings. To address this, Policy scenarios have been developed taking account of the actions that are being put in place by the Government to increase the rate at which energy efficiency improves within the housing stock. The results indicate that additional or re-targeted policies may be required.