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media release Legislation designed to help tackle climate change by improving the energy efficiency of Scottish homes is "floundering" and "in danger of failing entirely", according to a new report published today (Thursday 24 April) by Friends of the Earth and the Association for the Conservation of Energy. Warmer Homes, Cooler Planet examines the implementation of the Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) and finds Scottish councils have made little more than half the desired energy efficiency improvements and achieved less than a 2% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (the main climate change gas) on 1990 levels. [1]
Introduced in 1996, HECA charged local authorities with attaining “substantial” improvements in domestic energy efficiency (around 30% over 10 years). The report examines the impact of the Act's first four years, the barriers to its success and makes recommendations for ensuring the legislation operates effectively.
The main findings include:
The report concludes that at a local level more resources and power need to be made available to authorities, while strong, mandatory targets should be set both locally and nationally.
Friends of the Earth’s energy efficiency campaigner, Kirstie Shirra, said: “Improvements in energy efficiency have the potential to half our future climate emissions while also improving the lives of people who currently live in cold damp homes. It is extremely disappointing that legislation which could improve the situation is failing to make any significant progress. With few exceptions it is clear that Scotland is failing to deliver on energy efficiency.
" Worryingly, in political party manifestos this election, the issue of energy efficiency was not given the attention it deserves. We hope the publication of this report will now prompt changes to the Act and real, essential improvements to energy efficiency in Scotland's homes can begin to take place. Parties serious about tackling climate change would ensure HECA was made to work and back a target to improve domestic energy efficiency by 20% by 2010 and a further 20% by 2020."
Andrew Warren, Director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said: “The report highlights that a very small minority of local authorities have made substantial improvements in energy efficiency. It is vital that we build on the good practice they demonstrate and put in place the necessary funding and mechanisms to allow other authorities to follow suit. If HECA continues to operate in its current state many local authorities will fail to make any significant progress and the vast opportunities that energy efficiency presents will be lost." The main recommendations include:
The report was sponsored by Transco and Scottish Power.
Gordon McGregor at Scottish Power said: “Scottish Power recognises that home energy conservation has a critical role in tackling climate change in Scotland. We welcome the opportunity to support research which aims to improve the way Scotland tackles energy inefficient homes and we hope to see the conclusions of this report addressed."
John Taylor, Government Relations Manger, Transco stated: “Transco were delighted to provide sponsorship for the study into this very important piece of research. The completed report is an excellent document that raises a number of key points in relation to HECA that need to be addressed by a host of stakeholders in the energy, housing and the business community along with all levels of government."
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] HECA came into force in Scotland in 1996 with the aim of making “substantial” improvements in energy efficiency. Guidance was issued stating that “substantial” improvements should be around 30% over 10 years, the figure adopted by English and Welsh local authorities. In Scotland, however, many authorities negotiated this figure downwards and now have targets as low as 9%.
The Scottish Executive's first HECA progress report published in May 2001 found that in Scotland between 1997 and 1999, domestic energy efficiency had only been improved by 2.86% (equivalent to 1.4% per annum). However, this fails to take into account deterioration of the housing stock or the increasing size of the stock.
1997-2001 Energy Efficiency Improvements by Local Authority (%)
NOTE: At the time of research only the results of 22 out of 32 local authorities were available. The remaining local authorities either failed to publish their results on time or were unable to publish them as they were awaiting comments from the Scottish Executive. Unlike England and Wales, the Scottish Executive does not publish individual local authority results.
[3] Friends of the Earth is a supporting organisation
of the 'everyone' campaign - an initiative from Scottish Environment
LINK.
Some 26
organisations with nearly half a million supporters are combining
forces to push
the environment up the political agenda in the run up to the
Scottish Parliamentary
elections on May 1st. Already, an opinion poll by System 3 published
by the campaign on 26th February shows that the environment is
likely to be a decisive issue for the majority of voters during
this May's
Scottish elections. On climate the 'everyone' campaign calls on parties to: Tackle climate
change by improving domestic energy efficiency by 20% by 2010 and a
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